Sparkle Jurnakins with son Kendall.Photo: Sparkle Jurnakins
A day to remember!
Kendall Jurnakins, now 15 months old, was treated to a big celebration earlier this month, when he was finally cleared to leave Ascension St. Vincent Women’s Hospital in Indianapolis following a 460-day stay in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“This moment, actually, I have no words,” NICU medical director Dr. Taha Ben Saad told NBC affiliateWTHR. “It’s such a reward for all of us.”
Kendall only weighed 15 ounces when he was born at 25 weeks, according to WTHR, which reported that he was so small he could fit in the palm of somebody’s hand.
Staff at Ascension St. Vincent Women’s Hospital celebrate Kendall Jurnakins' big moment.Courtesy Ascension St. Vincent
At the time, his chance of survival was between around 50 to 60%, Ben Saad toldGMA.
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In order for her son “to be healthy,” Jurnakins toldGMA, he underwent a tracheostomy and was also placed on a ventilator.
Eight months later, Jurkanins faced a health scare of her own after contracting COVID-19.
“COVID almost took me out,” she told the outlet. “From August to October, I was in a coma.”
After recovering from the virus in December, Jurnakins got to reunite with her son — and despite her fears that “he was not gonna remember me,” she said her boy “looked at me the whole time.”
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“My son said, ‘We don’t have to go to Disney’ for his birthday this year,” she told WTHR. “He said, ‘This is my gift, the best gift ever, to get him home.’ "
The Jurnakins family at Ascension St. Vincent Women’s Hospital.Courtesy Ascension St. Vincent
source: people.com
