After less than 22 weeks in the womb, Amillia Sonja Taylor was born last October to Eddie and Sonja Taylor of Homestead and weighed less than 10 ounces at her birth.
Baptist Children's Hospital spokeswoman Liz Latta told AP that Amillia will still require oxygen at home and would be followed up by a developmental specialist to monitor her neurological development. The child now weighs about 4 1/2 pounds and is just over 15 1/2 inches long.
"The baby is healthy and thriving and left Baptist Children's Hospital today after four months in our neonatal intensive care unit," Latta said. Earlier the doctors at the hospital hoped to release Amillia on Tuesday but delayed her release to monitor a low white blood cell count for possibility of an infection.
At the time of birth, Amillia suffered respiratory and digestive problems, as well as a mild brain hemorrhage. However, doctors have ruled out ant major long-term health effects.
The world's smallest premature baby to survive was conceived after in vitro fertilization (IVF) but had to be delivered by Caesarean section after an infection caused her mother to go into premature labor.
She is world's fourth smallest baby to survive after a premature birth and is just the size of a pen. Full-term births come after 37 to 40 weeks, and few babies born before 22 weeks survive.
