A California girl born the size of a Coke can continues to defy the odds, months after doctors predicted she wouldn't make it.
About 7,000 babies are born every year at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, but Ellyannah Lopez may be the smallest they've ever seen.
She weighed just 12 ounces at birth and was so fragile that her parents couldn't hold her.
“She was born so small that no one, none of the doctors in that operating room thought she would cry. And when she did, I could hear everyone saying, 'Is that her?'” Cecia Juarez, 36, told ABC7.
The seven-month-old girl has now grown to 12 pounds.
Seven-month-old Ellyannah Lopez weighed less than a pound at birth and was the size of a soda can
The California girl was born before 26 weeks of pregnancy and was so delicate that her parents couldn't hold her
Cecia Juarez and Boris Lopez struggled to conceive for eight years and were considering fertility treatment when Juarez found out she was pregnant
Parents Cecia and Boris come from Gardena, a city in the South Bay of Los Angeles.
The couple struggled to conceive for nearly a decade, and just as they were about to undergo fertility treatment, Juarez became pregnant.
“No medication required, so we knew our baby would be a miracle, right?” she said.
But her blood pressure began to fluctuate and by the 20th week, Ellyannah was no longer receiving food through the umbilical cord.
Doctors feared that continuing the pregnancy would be fatal for both of them and performed an emergency cesarean section.
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai is equipped to provide specialized care to even the most vulnerable premature babies. Still, Ellyannah was the first baby to use a high-frequency jet ventilator.
Despite round-the-clock medical care, she almost died several times in her first month of life.
But at 20 weeks, Ellyanna was unable to receive proper nutrition through her umbilical cord, and doctors ordered Juarez to undergo an emergency C-section
The couple spent Thanksgiving in the hospital with their baby girl, whose right lung had not yet fully developed
Almost dying in her first month of life, Ellyannah was the first baby at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to use a special high-frequency jet ventilator
The little girl's parents couldn't hold her for 54 days because she was so weak
She has grown to 12 pounds in just over six months and continues to defy expectations despite the bleak outlook at the time of her birth
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 10 children born in the United States in 2022 were affected by preterm birth, i.e. before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
But if, like Ellyannah, they are born before 26 weeks, that number is even lower.
Data from the World Health Organization shows that premature birth complications are the leading cause of death in children under five, accounting for around 900,000 deaths worldwide in 2019.
Because of Ellyannah's underdeveloped lungs, doctors feared her chances of survival were slim. They forbid her parents from holding her for 54 days.
The family spent Thanksgiving in the NICU, holding Ellyannah and reading books as their baby girl lay amid a sea of wires and beeping monitors.
Juarez said she has “struggled” since day one and expects her daughter’s life to have great things in store.
“And I will love you, whoever you become,” she added.
In 2016, another California girl was born who weighed less than a can of soda.
Ailey Rose Murillo was delivered prematurely at 26 weeks and had a 1 percent chance of survival.
After a lengthy stay at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, she was allowed to go home in January 2017 weighing 4.5 kilograms.