LOS ANGELES - Born 16 weeks early and weighing barely half a pound at birth, one of the smallest surviving babies ever born anywhere in the world is growing and thriving at L.A. County-USC Medical Center.According to the Global Birth Registry, Melinda Star Guido is the third smallest baby ever born in the world when measured by both gestational age and weight. Melinda was just 24 weeks old and weighed only 270 grams when she was born Aug. 30, county health officials said last week. "She was always fighting, all the nurses were saying that she was really feisty, she was always fighting for her life," said the baby's parents, Haydee Ibarra and Yovani Guido, in a statement released by the county. Doctors initially weren't sure Melinda would survive such a premature birth. "The first three or four days I was worried if this baby was going to make it," said Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan, chief of the neonatalogy section at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. "So every day, more than once we spoke to the family and said take it minute by minute." The hospital's neonatal intensive care unit and their partner organizations will monitor Melinda over the next six years to check her health and ensure a continued quality of life.

********** Published: December 22, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 36