A Louisiana girl is going home for the first time after spending the first nine months of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Margo, the youngest daughter of Savanna and Daniel Buller, was discharged from Children's Hospital New Orleans on Tuesday, where doctors, nurses and staff threw the 9-month-old a celebration to commemorate her remarkable recovery and journey so far.
"I keep thinking to myself, I must be dreaming!" Margo's mom Savanna Buller told "Good Morning America." "I can't believe we are actually taking our baby home today. It has been such a long journey and we are so excited to share Margo with her siblings. We look forward to the summer and spending some very-much-needed time as [a] family of six!"
Savanna Buller, a mom of four, said she had regular pregnancies before, and at first, her pregnancy with Margo also seemed relatively normal. However, she told "GMA" that about midway through her pregnancy, she developed preeclampsia, causing her blood pressure to climb.
When Savanna Buller's blood pressure reached a dangerous level, doctors advised her to deliver Margo.
Margo was born at 25 weeks on Aug. 14, 2023, at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital for Women, where Savanna Buller also happens to work as a labor and delivery nurse. She said Margo weighed just 1 pound, 5 ounces at the time.
Within the following month, Margo was transferred to Children's Hospital New Orleans' Level 4 NICU, the highest level of NICU care in Louisiana.
Dr. Jessica Zagory, a pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital New Orleans, was part of the care team that started treating Margo when she arrived at the New Orleans NICU on Sept. 10, 2023.
"She started to do poorly about three weeks into her NICU stay [at Lake Charles], and the neonatologist there suspected that she had necrotizing enterocolitis and so sent Margo to Children's Hospital New Orleans," Zagory told "GMA."
Margo needed multiple treatments to address her necrotizing enterocolitis, a life-threatening condition of the intestinal tract where bacteria in the gut can cause the intestinal lining to become inflamed and die, according to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
"[Premature babies like Margo] just don't have a great barrier in their intestinal system, and so the bacteria that lives in there can proliferate and basically go across that membrane that usually protects us from the things that we eat and digest," Zagory explained.
At first, Zagory and Margo's other doctors tried less invasive treatments but when Margo didn't respond well, they had to try other surgeries and wait until she was stronger and healthier to pursue further operations.
"Margo has defied the odds, not once, not twice. They've sat us down close to five times to tell us, 'It doesn't look good. You know, Margo might not pull through this, but we're gonna keep on fighting with her,'" Savanna Buller recalled. "And every time ... she's surprised us."
Savanna and Daniel Buller have taken turns caring for Margo while in the hospital and were able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House temporarily.
Now, however, Margo will join her parents and three older siblings in Lake Charles. The Bullers said they couldn't be happier to welcome their youngest home.
"Even the doctors are like, 'This is a miracle baby,'" Savanna Buller told "GMA." "And I can agree, even as a nurse just looking medically, I'm like, 'This doesn't make sense. This is definitely something that is so remarkable that she's still here with us,' and to see all of the hurdles and obstacles she's overcome, I'm just amazed."
Zagory said it has also been fulfilling to see Margo not just survive but make a remarkable recovery.
"One of the best parts about Margo's story is that it has been such a success for us so far and it's been a true team effort," Zagory said. "I'm hopeful that she'll have a very normal outcome, which is not always the case for a lot of our babies who go through this condition."
