May 30 (UPI) -- An infant believed to be the smallest baby in the world to survive a premature birth -- 8.6 ounces when she arrived in December -- has been released from a San Diego hospital.
The newborn -- nicknamed Saybie by staff at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns, because of the parents' request for privacy -- was delivered by Caesarean section after her mother developed a life-endangering blood condition.
The hospital said Saybie, delivered at just 23 weeks, grew to a healthy 5.6 pounds before she "graduated" from the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit this month.
Hospital neonatologist Dr. Paul Wozniak said Saybie's release after just five months, with few complications, is remarkable.
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"Some babies we've had in here nine months to a year before they can go home," Wozniak told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "To me, it's remarkable she didn't go home on oxygen, because most babies this small will, or with a feeding tube."
Saybie needed the smallest breathing tube the hospital had, which was a critical part for her survival. The lungs of premature babies are usually underdeveloped and their intubation is extremely difficult, and often leads to death.
"When [the breathing tube] went right in ... it was instant relief," Wozniak said.
In a video released by the hospital, the girl's mother praised nurses for Saybie's care -- and for providing peace of mind for the last five months.
"I'm so grateful for them," she said. "I feel blessed. I know she's the smallest baby, but she's mine."
Hospital staff said genetics and good luck played a factor.
"She's a miracle," Kim Norby, a nurse in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, told NPR. "That's for sure."
The previous record for the smallest baby was set in Japan last October, when an infant was born at just 9.1 ounces. The newborn went home last month.
