A baby who spent the first six months of his life hospitalized after being born weighing just over half a kilo has finally gone home.
Nyla Brooke Haywood left Silver Cross Hospital in Illinois, United States, on Monday, to celebratory applause from the ‘Nyla Nation’, the name given to the medical team that has cared for Nyla since her birth last year.
According to ABC Chicago affiliate WLS-TV, Nyla was born at just 22 weeks pregnant and weighed just over a pound.
“It was a very scary time,” her mother, Nakeya Haywood, said at a press conference on Monday at Silver Cross Hospital.
The mother was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia (a clinical condition in which high blood pressure levels occur and can affect several organs in the body, including the liver, kidneys and brain) after the 20th week of pregnancy.
In some cases, complications of hypertension may include inducing labor to help protect the health of mother and baby, as was the case with Nakeya.
Given Nyla’s low birth weight, the baby was considered a micro-preemie, putting her at greater risk of complications. Corryn Greenwood, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Silver Cross Hospital, revealed that Nyla’s lungs were “very underdeveloped” when she was born and that her skin was translucent.
Despite the odds, Nyla showed determination to live from the beginning, according to Mario Sanchez, a neonatologist at the hospital. “She cried at birth. It was a weak cry, but it was a cry. And she started to fight right away”, he stressed, adding that, in the following months, the baby improved.
When she left the hospital on Monday, Nyla weighed 11 pounds. “Honestly, I have no words. I am so grateful that she is healthy and growing well,” said her mother.
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