SAN ANTONIO – This Christmas will be extra special for the parents of a baby who has spent the last 305 days in the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Luke’s Baptist Hospital.
Kamillia Peralta, who was born early this year at 35 weeks, has been tied up to machines throughout her hospital stay.
Kamillia was born with an Omphalocele, a congenital defect that caused some of her internal organs to develop outside her abdomen. Omphalocele can be fatal and often comes with birth defects.
Her parents, Luis Torres and Jacklynn Peralta, have been beside her the entire time. An experience that Peralta said tested her faith.
“Every single time that I felt like it was getting rough ... my dad told me, ‘keep your faith with God and no matter how rough it gets, she’s going to be OK,’” Peralta said.
Now, Kamillia is OK and is thriving.
“She’s always kicking, kicking, and kicking, and kicking. They call her ‘happy feet’ in the NICU," Peralta said. “She grabs everything. She likes to chew everything, including her fingers. She has about eight teeth now.”
Peralta said she is grateful to the doctors, nurses and medical staff who helped keep Kamillia alive.
“They really do show that they care,” Peralta said.
Kamillia has endured several surgeries and doctors said she will likely have to get more.
“The goal will be to ... get her to be able to eat everything by mouth on her own and not require the tube or the IV,” said Dr. Isabel Basaldu-Pradu, a neonatologist at St. Luke’s Baptist Hospital.
Now that Kamillia is finally leaving the NICU for her family’s living room, her parents couldn’t be happier. This Christmas, the best gift isn’t waiting under their tree — it’s having the entire family together under one roof.
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