SHE IS MY MIRACLE!
Joyce Leong, 35 Single mother of 2 (aged 4 and 13), Singaporean Chinese – unemployed
Joyce’s youngest daughter, Miracle, was born pre-mature during her 22nd week of pregnancy and weighed only 590 grams. She received highly specialized care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for around 7 months.
Since Miracle was born before 30 weeks, she did not develop enough cartilage to support her trachea and needed help breathing. The NICU doctors performed an operation to open her windpipe and placed a tube inside. Unfortunately, this tube prevented Miracle from learning how to speak, breathe and eat on her own. Four years after the surgery, Miracle developed a healthy windpipe and had the tube removed.
Miracle is now enjoying her childhood for the first time. She’s super smiley, extremely curious and loves to play. She’s even learning how to speak her very first words! Joyce jokes that all these experiences are equivalent to “taking care of a new-born baby”. Despite it being a tough beginning, it turned out to have a miraculous ending!