A Christmas story for the smallest baby born at Health Park

Reporter: Elizabeth Biro
Published: Updated:

The smallest baby ever born at Health Park Medical Center and her family are getting the best Christmas ever!

After spending her entire life in the hospital, she is a fighter and her mom has been through some battles of her own.

Darionna was born in late April, via emergency c-section at just 25 weeks weighing less than a can of Coke.

“She’s about like, from my fingertips probably to like wrist and just like you could probably hold her,” said T’Kyia  White, her mother.

White knows her daughter is a fighter. She’s been at Golisano Children’s Hospital since she was born, recently moved from the NICU to the PICU, and now weighs 10 pounds.

Her mom is also a fighter and has dealt with a lot of hardship on top of taking care of her daughter.

“To find out that her best friend passed away how would you get through something like that without the strength with you that would just be so difficult, and then to find out she’s been helping raise her best friend’s kids,” said Kelly LeClaire, captain of Best Christmas Ever.

White’s story touched so many including Kelly LeClaire. She’s a captain for the nonprofit Best Christmas Ever and helps choose recipients.

“I read through about 44,45 family stories and you just sort of read them and you try to accept what’s going on in their lives you know these people are going through hard times to no fault of their own, and I got to her story and–oh I’m going to cry–it caught my heart. That tiny little baby and my own experience in the NICU and how difficult that was,” LeClaire said.

LeClaire knows what it’s like to sleep at night without your baby, and she believes there is no one more deserving of this.

White was given gifts for her and her daughter, gift cards, a financial literacy plan, and checks to help with any debt.

“It means a lot. Like there’s, there’s somebody out there that hears your story. There’s people out there that helps, and it’s just a blessing to get your story out there, and you’re somebody who’s like, oh, my god, it’s touched their heart,” White said.

White now has a new family with the best Christmas ever. This Christmas is just the start.

She said the true gift is she gets to bring her daughter home in less than two weeks.

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