(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A family in Joliet has gotten their wish and is finally leaving the hospital with their "miracle baby."
Nyla Brooke Haywood was treated to a send-off party Monday at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, Illinois, attended by family, friends and hospital staffers before the 6-month-old was taken home by her first-time parents, NaKeya and Cory Haywood of Joliet.
The baby had been in the neonatal intensive care unit since November, when she was born at 22 weeks and three days. Doctors say she weighed just 1.1 pound and was 11 inches long.
NICU Medical Director Dr. Corryn Greenwood says Nyla was up against difficult odds.
"Nyla's eyes were still fused. Her tiny lungs were very undeveloped, and her skin was thin and translucent. Nearly see-through, but after Nyla was born, we truly had all hands on deck," she said.
Nyla's mom says Nyla had to be born early due to sudden complications.
"I was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 22 weeks, and from there, things just didn't necessarily get better,” NaKeya said.
“I know we had to make the tough decision that we had to deliver her.”
She said she was scared about her child’s early delivery. But Nyla “came out fighting,” said Dr. Mario Sanchez, a neonatologist at Silver Cross Hospital, speaking with the station.
“She cried at birth. It was a little whimper, but it was a cry. Her heart rate always remained over 100, which for us is where we wanted it to be. She came out fighting right off the bat,” he said.
After her birth, Nyla's lungs were tiny and underdeveloped, but a team of up to 15 people focused on the tiny newborn during her first minutes and days. She has some residual scarring on her lungs and was sent home with oxygen. Nyla will require regular checkups to keep watch for any future complications, which sometimes arise with micropreemies.
Nyla is the youngest preemie cared for at the Silver Cross Hospital's NICU.
Now she is a healthy 9.8 pounds and 21 inches long. After six months in the hospital, Nyla is finally going home to Joliet with her mom and dad.
"When you got a baby girl and you're a dad, I get so happy every time I see her," Cory said.
Growing numbers of extremely premature infants are getting lifesaving treatment and surviving. A pivotal study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2022 looked at nearly 11,000 such births in a neonatal research network that is part of the National Institutes of Health.
It found that 30% of babies born at 22 weeks, 56% born at 23 weeks and 71% born at 24 weeks lived at least until they were healthy enough to be sent home if doctors tried to save them.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
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