Story Published:
Jun 9, 2010 at 5:49 PM MDT
Story Updated:
Jun 10, 2010 at 11:25 AM MDT
BILLINGS - We first met Chloe Grabarek back in December. The one-year-old girl unable to breathe on her own has lived in the hospital nearly her entire life, until Wednesday.
Chloe's mom got the best birthday present she could ask for: bringing her baby girl home from the hospital for the first time in more than a year.
Chloe Grabarek's sweet smile captured our hearts back in December when she had a special visit from Sesame Street's Elmo.
This little girl with a rare form of Dwarfism has spent the past year in St. Vincent Healthcare's Pediatric Ward, hooked up to her life-giving ventilator. But thanks to the St. V's Foundation and other donors, a portable ventilator system is now set up at Chloe's house.
"She's going to have two ventilators, one on her chair so she can go out to the park and walk and do that kind of thing and one at home," ventilator specialist Diana Kingsbury said, "It all makes it just convenient for her to be out and about gives her a chance to get out of the hospital."
Going home means saying goodbye to her hospital family, like the nurses and staff at St. V's who have lovingly cared for her.
"It's bittersweet. It's a happy happy time for her, but it's really sad for us," Chloe's nurse Kory Funk said, "But it's going to be hard to not be able to come in here every morning and get a big smile from her to start your day out."
Chloe's mom hasn't left her daughter's side in the hospital and said she can't wait to see her baby at home.
"So excited that I can barely even stand it. It's just going to be so awesome," mother Jodi Grabarek said.
Everyone hopes that the portable ventilator will help breath new life into Chloe.
"So the fact that it's a portable ventilator and has a battery backup allows her more freedom to do what she's going to do being an active toddler," Kingsbury said.
"She's going to get big and get off her ventilator and she's gonna do great things for a lot of people," Funk said.
But for now, her mom said having Chloe home is all they could ask for. "Being there when she wakes up in the morning is what I'm looking forward to the most, and just being able to like go outside go to the park together. Even though we have to carry our vent around with us we'll just do everything like normal life," Grabarek said.
Chloe's family is busy planning a big welcome home party for her this summer to celebrate.
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