LOS ANGELES — One of the world’s smallest surviving babies was discharged Friday from the hospital where she spent nearly five months in an incubator — but not before getting the Hollywood treatment.
Wearing a pink knit hat and wrapped in a pink princess blanket, Melinda Star Guido was greeted by a mob of television cameras and news photographers outside the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
“I’m just happy that she’s doing well,” said her 22-year-old mother, Haydee Ibarra. “I’m happy that I’m finally going to take her home. … I’m just grateful.”
Melinda was born Aug. 30 weighing just 9½ ounces, less than a can of soda — tiny enough to fit into her doctor’s hand. She was delivered by cesarean section at 24 weeks after her mother developed high blood pressure during pregnancy, which can be dangerous for mother and fetus.
Now weighing 4½ pounds and breathing through an oxygen tube as a precaution, doctors said Melinda has made enough progress to go home.
Melinda is thought to be the world’s third-smallest surviving baby and second-smallest in the U.S. About 7,500 babies are born each year in the U.S. weighing less than 1 pound, and about 10 percent survive.
