OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An Oklahoma girl is living proof that sometimes the biggest miracles come in the tiniest packages.
Born at just 22 weeks gestation – this miracle baby is beating the odds as she nears her first birthday.
“She has been a miracle the whole way,” said the baby’s grandmother, Sheila Williams.
In November of 2021, Cherie Malarney was 22 weeks pregnant with her fourth baby when complications related to preeclampsia left her in an unthinkable position.
“In 40 years, I think, OU Medical and Children’s, in 40 years they haven’t seen her case,” said the baby’s mother, Cherie Malarney.
Doctors told her she had to deliver her tiny baby.
“I dropped to my knees, I prayed to God,” Malarney said. “‘If you can save my baby, save her. That’s all that matters. If you can save her, save her.'”
Not long after, she gave birth to her tiny little girl, Eris.
Doctors began working on the baby immediately.
“When I seen them rush her out of there, I knew she was alive,” Malarney said. “She’s alive and that’s all I needed to know.”
That faith is something this family has clung to every step of the way.
In her 10 months of life, little Eris has undergone a dozen surgeries and exceeded doctors expectations.
“She’s not going to have any quality of life,” Malarney recalled. “She’ll never be able to walk, run, play. Now, she won’t be able to enjoy it. She won’t be able to do all these things that you want your baby to do. I’m not giving up on my baby girl.”
Malarney wasn’t able to hold her baby for her first two months – but as soon as she could, her little girl was dressed to impress for every occasion.
Malarney does her best to be at Children’s every day to care for Eris – and do the same at home for her and her husband’s three other children.
“Is just it’s just a lot of stress pressure and I really don’t know how she does it,” Williams said. “But I am so proud of I tell every day she is a wonderful mother. She is.”
No matter how hard it is – this family refuses to give up.
“She’s such a beautiful baby, beautiful baby, and we figured – [as] long she fights, we were going go fight, you know?” said Williams.
The family isn’t sure when Eris will be able to leave the hospital – but they have faith that she will one day.
The family has set up a goFundme account to help with expenses.