Gracie Bernal was born May 7, 2018, and weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces, the television station reported.
"In the movies, you always hear the babies come out crying," Gretchen Bernal, Gracie's mother, told KENS. "When (the doctors) delivered Gracie, they started counting, and that's how we knew something was different."
Baby Grace spent almost all of the first year of her life in the intensive care unit. But she beat the life-threatening odds to make her way home for the first time. https://t.co/cVASBU8iyO
— KENS 5 (@KENS5) March 19, 2019
The infant was not breathing when she was born, and doctors found complications with some of her organs, the television station reported.
"She had a hole in her intestines that killed about 70 percent of her intestines," her father, Javier, told KENS. "The surgeon came up to us and said, 'If I have to cut anymore, she may not make it.'"
After 311 days, Gracie made it. She was released from the neonatal intensive care unit Thursday.
"We just know that prayer works," Bernal told KENS. "We're very aware that other parents don't have the same experience as we did. We always keep them in mind and encourage anyone who has time to go visit them and pray for them.
“When they told us we were clear to go home, my first thought was, ‘It’s about time!’” Bernal said. “We’ve been pushed. We have been pulled, our faith has been tested and we have become stronger.”
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