3% life chance baby celebrates 1st year
Published: August 24, 2005
Laughter filled the hallway near the neonatal intensive care unit as the girl who was given a three percent chance of survival dabbled her hands in the frosting of her first birthday cake.
The pink frosting on the cakes said it all “Happy Birthday Miracle Baby Cora Rose.”
A year after her four month premature birth, doctors and nurses who helped Cora Rose Leone survive now helped her celebrate her first birthday in the hallway leading to the unit where Cora spent her first four months of life.
Her mother, grandmother and aunt brought her back to visit the people who cared for her.
The nearly 13-pound girl was the life of her party as doctors and nurses held her and remembered how far she had come.
Cora, the second smallest baby to survive at Loma Linda University Medical Center, was 14.5 ounces and 10.5 inches long at birth.
“She is amazing,” said her mother, Shawnda Rae Guptill-Leone. “We are very lucky.”
Aside from her small size, she is the picture of health and her mother spoke with pride about the baby’s attempts to walk and first words.
But tears of sadness mixed with tears of joy.
Cora’s twin brother, Dominic, only lived for two months.
“It’s a bittersweet day,” Guptill-Leone said. “If you could take a moment today, think of my son.”
Wendy Guptill, Cora’s grandmother, recalled how Dominic’s nurse, Annette Gross, cared for him and later, Cora.
“She is going to be our lifelong friend,” she said.
Both Gross and Annette Patel, her main nurse, and Dr. Elmar Sakala, who delivered Cora held the girl in the tiny pink dress during the visit.
“It is really exciting to know she is doing so well,” said Gross. “She is such as amazing baby.”
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