Nov 6, 2009 5:40 pm US/Eastern
Miami Baby Born 1 Pound, 1 Ounce Goes Home
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Gabriella Mercedes Gil now weighs 12 pounds.
Holtz Children's Hospital
One of the smallest babies ever born at Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami went home Friday for the very first time. Gabriella Mercedes Gil weighed only 1 pound, 1 ounce and measured just 11 inches long when she was born on March 5th. Born at 23 weeks of gestation, Gabriella only had a 15-percent chance of survival.
She has spent eight months in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Holtz Children's Hospital. She experienced many life-threatening problems associated with extreme premature babies including severe lung disease and had heart surgery at just two weeks old.
"This was very shaky, she was very tiny, and very, very sick," said Dr. Shahnaz Duara, medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
But Gabriella pulled through. She now weighs 12 pounds, which is twelve times what she weighed at birth. For Gabriella's parent, it's been quite a year.
"There was a fear, but there was some kind of calm in my heart. Like a mother, like you know what is gonna happen and my mother always told me that and its true. You always gonna know what is gonna happen, I feel very calm and very confident and I trust God," said Gabriella's mother, Maruja Gil.
Gabriella will be discharged to her parents, Maruja and Miguel Gill of Miami, with several medications and home oxygen which is common for babies with underdeveloped lungs.
CBS4's Tiffani Helberg contributed to this report
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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