A 2-year-old finally goes home after being hospitalized entire life — which has been a series of miracles

A 2-year-old child is finally going home after spending her entire life in a hospital. Addy Smith was discharged from the hospital on April 5 after 848 days of treatment at two different San Diego hospitals. The child was born via a cesarean section on December 10, 2019. She was born prematurely at 27 weeks and 4 days at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns in San Diego. She was diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction while still in the womb. According to Medline Plus, this "refers to the poor growth of a baby while in the mother's womb during pregnancy."

Addy had underdeveloped lungs at birth but was making good progress. She was moved from a ventilator to a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine to help her breathe. However, three months after her birth, her health took a turn for the worse. Her mother, Aliesha Smith, 35, told Good Morning America, "The doctors did not think she was going to make it and we were getting ready to say our goodbyes."

Doctors had to struggle for nearly an hour to revive Addy. However, the staff at Sharp Mary Birch advised Abby's parents that in order to give Addy a fighting chance, she needed to be transported to Rady Children's Hospital. Abby was transported to Rady Children's Hospital in March 2020 when the pandemic hit the country and the COVID protocols changed, allowing only one parent to stay with Abby. Aleisha said, "She was so critical, so critical, that we had a friend that let us use their RV. And so we parked on the street and that's where one of us would be when one of us would be up by her room."

Dr. Sandeep Khanna in the hospital treated Abby in PICU for over a year. He told the outlet, "She was a challenge. She was having periods when the air exchange was very difficult on her and we had to give her heavy amounts of sedation to relax her, and sometimes even the heavy, heavy amounts of sedation did not work." He added, "The only thing which helped us through was that we had to give her a paralyzing medication after heavy sedation."

Addy was on a paralytic medicine for months and her care staff, like Khanna, didn't have any obvious answers or remedies. However, Abby's family never gave up on her. Proper care and observation helped Abby's lungs to continuously grow and heal. When Addy couldn't breathe in February and March 2022, she didn't have any bronchoconstriction or muscular spasms in the lungs. The Smiths' previous two years had been tremendously challenging, but learning they were pregnant again was one of their bright spots. Last year, Addy's parents, Aliesha and Chris Smith had their second child, a healthy baby boy named Aiden.

Aiden joined his sister as she was taken home after two years of being hospitalized. Aleisha said, "She starts cracking up when he's laughing or when he's screaming, she cracks up, and it's funny to see them interact. We've taken them on walks together out in the neighborhood, which has been so fun to do." Aliesha and Chris are full of optimism for their oldest child, Addy, who still requires the use of a ventilator at home for the time being. They wish to share their hope with others.

Chris said, "It's been miracle after miracle with her. We're both so excited to see where she goes and what she can do. And I know she's always going to continue to blow us away and surprise us."