Preemie baby who was born weighing just ONE POUND leaves the hospital after 500 DAYS in ICU

A premature baby who was born weighing just one pound and was given a 50 per cent chance of survival has beat the odds and finally left the hospital – after spending more than 500 days in the ICU fighting for her life.

Tyler Robinson’s now-18-month-old daughter, Autumn, from Chicago, Illinois, was born four months early – at just 23 weeks – after Tyler suffered from a uterine rupture, which resulted in the newborn developing many complications.

Autumn was born with a chronic lung disease called bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and weighed only 1.1 pounds – and doctors weren’t sure if she was going to make it.

‘Autumn was given a 50-50 chance of survival when she was first delivered,’ Dr. Megan Lagoski, a neonatologist who treated the baby at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, told Good Morning America recently. 

‘She was having dangerous dips in her oxygen level, even to the point where her heart rate would become low too and they were worried that she was going to die.

‘Her heart was strained from all the work it required to pump blood through the lungs and to pick up oxygen and bring it back and pump it to the rest of the body, something called pulmonary hypertension, and that made her even sicker.’

At just five months old, Autumn underwent an emergency surgery to have a breathing tube placed in her lungs – which helped immensely.

‘Once we got her to good support on the breathing machine, we were able to help her start to do normal baby things and have more interactions that were meaningful with her mother,’ Dr. Lagoski explained. 

Autumn continued to fight, and was even nicknamed ‘Feisty’ by the hospital staff due to her strong personality.

The baby spent 17 months – equating to 524 days – in the hospital in total, before she was finally strong enough to go home on August 17.

And during her stay, Tyler made sure to visit her daughter every single day.

‘I talked to her and I would tell her, “Autumn, it’s OK, if you’re ready to go … But if you’re not ready to go, and you want to keep fighting this good fight, mommy’s gonna keep fighting this good fight with you,”‘ she recalled.

‘”We’re gonna keep doing this together no matter what.” I would just pray on my baby, talk to my baby, sing to my baby.’

Tyler used her strength and positivity to not only bring light to Autumn’s world, but also to the doctors, nurses, and other patients.

‘I decorated for everything. I put out candy for the nurses,’ she said. ‘You know, we’re in this bad situation and we’re feeling [like] we’re never gonna get out of it, but a little candy here and there, it’ll bring a little happiness to somebody.’

She told CBS News in a previous interview that the staff at Lurie Children’s Hospital became like her ‘family.’

‘They’ve seen me cry, laugh, they listened to me scream and yell,’ she explained. ‘They’ve been my family since I’ve been here and they’ve been my family because they love my baby.’

After more than 500 days in the hospital, Tyler brought Autumn home last month, which also marked the baby’s first time outside.

‘She’s never seen outside or felt the wind. She started sneezing – you know normal kid stuff that we take for granted, like her seeing the sun and seeing other people,’ Tyler said at the time.

‘She doesn’t know this life. She only knows life inside the hospital. I’m just so thankful to be able to walk out with my baby.’

Autumn is now happily recovering at home, but she still uses a ventilator.

‘That’s her best friend,’ her mom previously joked to NBC Chicago of the machine. ‘She holds it. To her it’s nothing. It’s a part of her.’

She’s now learning to sit up and play with her toys. Tyler added to GMA, ‘My Autumn girl is a happy, happy baby. She is stubborn but sweet as can be, lovable.

Dr. Lagoski also told NBC that the baby is ‘rolling all over the place,’ and is full of ‘smiles and laughs.’

‘She loves to cuddle, loves to smell and loves to play. She likes attention and she sure gets a lot of that,’ the doctor added.

While Tyler is ‘very scared’ about having her daughter at home as a single mother, especially because there is a ‘shortage of home nursing’ in her area, she’s prepared – as this was something she has dreamed about for more than 500 days.

‘I’m a single parent, and a lot of the time I won’t have nursing because of shortage in home nursing,’ she said to NBC. ‘I’m very scared but I’m also ready. I’ve been preparing for this since she’s been born.’

Tyler also admitted that she still suffers from PTSD from the whole experience.

‘I’m still going through it,’ she revealed to GMA. ‘I still have the screams in my head from parents. 

‘They can hide it but it’s real out here and nobody [knows] about it unless they’re living in it. 

‘And it’s not just the parents – these nurses have to see too. It’s a different world [in the NICU].’

While the mother-of-one saw horrible things during her time at the NICU, she added that ‘it’s a wonderful place’ where ‘miracles’ can happen.

‘You see miracles, my baby is a miracle … but let’s not stray away from also the pain that us parents see and feel from the other parents,’ she added.

‘I did it all for her, no matter what I did,’ she concluded. ‘I sacrificed a lot for her but I would do it again … I would do it all over again for her, everything for her, because I love her.’