A micro preemie baby who was born weighing just one pound has been reunited with the doctor and medical team responsible for saving her life, Good Morning America reported.
Mikayla Petti was born at 24 weeks and spent 122 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at a New York hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now she’s returned to that same hospital once again as a healthy baby to visit the staff who helped her survive.
On February 15, 2020, Mikayla’s then-still pregnant mom, Maria, realized something was wrong and told her husband, Andrew, to take her to the hospital.
“We were only a few blocks away from the house and Maria started screaming that the baby was coming out,” Andrew told CBS New York . “It was in her pant leg.”
The pair were unable to make it to a hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit, and instead pulled up to St. Joseph Hospital, located right near their home in Farmingdale.
Dr. John Mathew, director of emergency medicine and associate chief medical officer for progressive emergency physicians at the hospital, rushed outside to meet the couple.
In an interview with GMA , Maria recalled the moment the physician took their newborn into his hands and told the parents, “She’s really small. I’m going to do the best that I can.”
“Along with a child’s first breath, once we clamp the cord everything changes for a child,” Dr. Mathew told the outlet. “We were prepared, but in a little bit of shock.”
It took 90 minutes for Mathew and his team to resuscitate baby Mikayla, who weighed only one pound, 9 ounces.
Since the hospital was not equipped with a NICU nursery, the newborn was placed in an infant warmer while staff worked to save her delicate little life.
“She was a fighter,” Mathew told CBS.
A transport team from North Shore University Hospital’s NICU arrived to intubate Mikayla and put her on life support.
She and her mom, Maria, were both then taken to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset where the micro preemie would remain for the next 122 days.
During that time, Mikayla underwent a successful heart surgery for a murmur.
Because of the pandemic, visitors to the NICU were limited to only one parent a day for one hour.
It wasn’t until 10 days after Mikayla was born that Maria and Andrew Petti were finally able to hold their baby for the first time.
Four months later, in mid-June, the proud parents left the NICU with Mikayla to go home as a family.
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Now the sweet little girl weighs 9 pounds, 3 ounces, and her mother reports that she is developing well.
“She rolled over for the first time,” Maria told GMA. “She’s defying all odds of what a micro preemie baby should be doing.”
Doctors have reportedly assured the Petti parents that they expect Mikayla to live a long, healthy life, one which was most certainly made possible by Dr. Mathew and his team at St. Joseph’s.
On August 5, Mikayla returned to St. Joseph’s, not as a patient but as a visitor, to reunite with the individuals responsible for helping to save her life.
In a video shared to the St. Joseph Facebook page , Dr. Mathew can be seen holding the healthy, smiling baby, and tearfully accepting a gift of thanks from her parents.
“We have this young life who wants to survive despite all the death we’ve seen [during the pandemic],” the physician told GMA. “It was really precious to see this little girl who knows how to fight all obstacles.”
Maria affirmed that both Dr. Mathew, as well as his entire team at St. Joseph, deserve to be honored.
“For what he did, and his skills he had to save my baby,” she said.
The Petti family hopes that little Mikayla will one day grow up to be a NICU nurse herself to help other preemie babies in need of loving care.
h/t: Good Morning America , CBS New York , Facebook | St. Joseph Hospital
