CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Despite the wires and beeps from medical monitors, Josie Boswell is all smiles for her mom, dad and big brother. She's tiny now even at 21 months, but she's come a long way.
“Every single time God finds a way to tell us what she needs,” said Josie’s mom, Sara Boswell.
While she was pregnant, Sara was diagnosed with preeclampsia, and the placenta holding Josie was damaged. So four months early, Josie was delivered via C-section.
She was a micro-preemie weighing less than a pound and just 10 inches long. Her family didn’t know if she’d survive, but Josie is a fighter.
For the next 17 months, her home was Novant Health Hemby Children's Hospital. First, she was in the NICU, then the PICU.
It was a challenge for Josie's medical team. She developed sepsis, pneumonia and a chronic lung disease. Her care required specially trained doctors and nurses from nearly all of Novant's pediatric sub-specialties.
“We had to get it where her lungs were healthy enough for her to go home, even though they're still very sick,” said her doctor Emily Nazarian, a pediatric intensivist at Hemby.
New approaches by doctors worked, and Josie was finally able to go home. Those strategies are now being used to help other babies like her.
Josie still requires a feeding tube and ventilator treatments every six hours, but doctors hope she'll eventually grow out of that.
She has every potential to eventually lead a normal life.