Baby born weighing 10 ounces who defied odds heads home

Layah Faith Pegues was born weight just 10 ounces. (Fox 46 Charlotte.)

The smallest surviving baby born at Carolinas HealthCare System is finally headed home more than four months after she was born. E’Layah Faith Pegues was born weighing 10 ounces and has fought to survive since the day she arrived, Fox 46 Charlotte reported.

“It’s a miracle that she survived even today, so I think had she been born 10 or 16 years ago, it’s very unlikely that she would’ve survived,” Dr. Jessica Clarke-Pounder, a neonatologist at Levine Children’s Hospital, told the news station.

E’Layah now weighs 5 pounds 8 ounces thanks to a special formula packed with extra nutrients that was given to her through a feeding tube. Doctors described her prognosis as “guarded” and said she will likely have some challenges in the future, but she’s growing and developing well.

Her mother, Megan Smith, told Fox 46 Charlotte that she’s nervous and excited to finally bring her daughter home. Five months into her pregnancy with E’Layah, Smith suffered from high blood pressure and nearly had two strokes. When she stopped feeling E’Layah move, doctors performed an emergency C-section, the news station reported.

E’Layah will join two older brothers at home who haven’t seen her since the day she was born.

“I want to know who she is because she is feisty,” Smith told Fox 46 Charlotte. “She fought to be here.”