A baby boy who was born at 25 weeks finally went home with his family after spending the first 460 days of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Fifteen-month-old Kendall Jurnakins left the NICU at Ascension St. Vincent Women's Hospital in Indianapolis on March 16.
Staff at the hospital gave their former patient an elaborate send-off, lining the halls and applauding the little one as he was taken out of the hospital in his stroller on his way home with his parents, Sparkle and Keith Jurnakins.
Mom Sparkle, 41, gave birth to her youngest child on December 11, 2020, via emergency cesarean section as a result of her high blood pressure, a situation made more precarious by the fact that she also has diabetes and only one kidney.
Kendall was born after just 25 weeks and weighed only 15 ounces. According to estimates by the doctor, the newborn had a 50-50 chance of survival at the time.
Dr. Taha Ben Saad, the neonatologist who took care of Kendall, explained to Good Morning America: "When he was born at 25 weeks and based on his weight, national data and international [data], his chance to survive was around like 50 to 60% ... this is only survival, not survival with complication or long-term problems, but he actually beat some odds."
Jurnakins told GMA she worried that her baby would not survive after being born prematurely. "I just was scared my baby wasn't gonna make it because they said at that small, he probably wasn't gonna make it," she recalled.
Kendall was suffering from respiratory distress syndrome and chronic lung disease and eventually developed problems with eating.
"I was going to visit him every day. He was really sick in the beginning," the doting mother said. "We couldn't figure out why he couldn't get his lungs together. So we had to, they told me that his lungs wasn't really fully developed like they should. They was gonna have to trach it. So we ended up having to have that big surgery, a trach put in for him to be healthy."
Kendall received a tracheostomy and was put on a ventilator to help with his breathing. He was later given a gastrostomy tube for feeding.
Around eight months into her son's treatment, Jurnakins became ill with Covid-19 and began receiving treatment of her own at the same hospital. She told GMA, her illness was so severe she "almost" died from it.
Like her son, Jurnakins was placed on a ventilator and got a tracheostomy. She was in the intensive care unit for two months.
Eventually, the doting mom recovered and she reunited with her infant in December 2021.
He was discharged just over three months later, with Jurnakins calling it "the best day of my life."
We wish this amazing family all the best for their future!
