This little newborn girl was born 3 months early and weighed just 566 grams. The doctors warned us that we should brace ourselves for the worst because the survival rate at this weight is extremely low. Tammy Lewis, on the other hand, is not one of the frail. She made it and is now 34 years old. She now works in the same intensive care unit that saved her life.
“At the time, I was the state’s tiniest surviving child,” Lewis said. “I was born at the age of 24 weeks. A normal pregnancy lasts 40 weeks”.
Little Lewis spent the first three months of her life in the hospital. Her little lungs couldn’t keep up, so she was hooked up to a ventilator.
After many years, the girl is again working with the same nurses who battled for her life.
“I wanted to help those who were in my predicament,” Lewis explained.
When the girl finished high school, she couldn’t decide between teaching and medical as a career path. “However, it was the medication that guided me to the location where God led me.”
Tammy Lewis began working as a respiratory therapist in Texas in 2009. Her responsibilities include attaching ventilators and breathing tubes, such as the ones she used to help her breathe. “I like helping these youngsters every day as I work,” she remarked.
Tammy is already a mother of two children, ages three and six.
When she engages with the parents of little patients, she inspires them with her narrative. “Parents need it,” she explained. “My story also helps them.”
The hospital features a “Hall of Hope” where they discuss all of the small patients that survived. Intensive care unit doctors become part of the patients’ families because they do all necessary to ensure that the infants survive and return home.
“They are so frail when they are born; it’s wonderful to see them grow up and robust afterward.”
The days when the youngsters come to visit are one of the delights of her job. “It’s amazing to see how a one-kilogram baby turns into a small person.”
