Baby Born Prematurely Comes Home After 50-50 Chance of Survival

After spending the first year of his life in the NICU, Kendall Jurnakins is now home with his family.

In December 2020 at Ascension St. Vincent Women’s Hospital in Indianapolis, Kendall Jurnakins was born prematurely and only weighed 15 ounces. At this point, his survival rate according to his doctors was about a 50-50 chance.

Kendall’s mother, Sparkle Jurnakins had to get an emergency c-section due to high blood pressure further complicated by her diabetes and having only one kidney.

As his health diminished, she began to fear for her baby boy’s life.

“I just was scared my baby wasn’t gonna make it because they said at that small, he probably wasn’t gonna make it,” she told Good Morning America.”

Having been born at just 25 weeks, Kendall developed many health problems like respiratory distress syndrome and chronic lung disease. He also started having problems with eating.

This led to Kendall having to get a tracheostomy for his lungs, a gastrostomy tube for eating, and he was also put on a ventilator to help his breathing.

“I was going to visit him every day. He was really sick in the beginning,” Jurnakins said. “We couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t get his lungs together. So we had to, they told me that his lungs wasn’t really fully developed like they should. They was gonna have to trach it. So we ended up having to have that big surgery, a trach put in for him to be healthy.”

During this time, Sparkle Jurnakins developed a health issue of her own. When Kendall was only eight months old, she contracted COVID-19 and admitted herself into the same hospital as her baby boy.

Sparkle said that the only thing she could remember was going into the hospital and telling them that she couldn’t breathe.

The mom of 3 was then was put on a ventilator and given a tracheostomy just like her son. She remained in intensive care unit for two months.