From 2 pound premature baby to the NFL, Denver Broncos safety Delarrin Turner-Yell continues overcoming adversity
A 3 pound premature baby who was given 24 hours to live is now carving out a football career among the best in the world. That sounds kind of like a far-fetched Hollywood movie, but beating the odds is just who Dellarin Turner-Yell is.
“He weighed 3 pounds, 13 ounces when I pushed him out,” his mother Denise Turner said. “That was an event. I call it the roller coaster birth.”
“I was a premature baby, born at 6 months,” said the Denver Broncos safety who was drafted out of Oklahoma in 2022. “Once she did have me, they came in, they told her that they were only giving me 24 hours to live. Once I did make it past 24 hours they told my mom that my motor skills would be off
“He weighed 3 pounds, 13 ounces when I pushed him out,” his mother Denise Turner said. “That was an event. I call it the roller coaster birth.”
“I was a premature baby, born at 6 months,” said the Denver Broncos safety who was drafted out of Oklahoma in 2022. “Once she did have me, they came in, they told her that they were only giving me 24 hours to live. Once I did make it past 24 hours they told my mom that my motor skills would be off.”
“Once I got home you could still see through my skin. I didn’t have any fingernails. I didn’t have any eyebrows, eyelashes, anything like that. My mom was only 4 feet tall but she told me I was so small that I could fit into the palm of both her hands.”
Despite the dire circumstances of his birth, he had very few medical problems growing up. Miraculously, the only residual effect for Turner-Yell was childhood asthma.
“As he grew, he was just as normal as everybody else,” said Turner. “I always was scared that he was going to be little like me. You know, that he was going to have health problems like me.”
