One Of World's Smallest Babies Goes Home

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — One of the smallest babies ever born went home Friday, almost five months after entering the world weighing just over half a pound.

Melinda Star Guido was born Aug. 30 at 24 weeks, or four months early. Melinda is the third-smallest baby ever born, according to Global Birth Registry figures.

Melinda spent the first months of her life being monitored around the clock in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Care, where Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan says he wasn't sure she would survive beyond a few days. However, as Melinda got older, she quadrupled in weight and now weights 4 and a half pounds.

Premature babies are at increased risk for health complications. Melinda is among the fewer than 1 percent of babies born earlier than 28 weeks, according to the March of Dimes. About 7,500 babies are born each year in the United States weighing less than a pound and about 10 percent survive.

Most babies go home without much fanfare and maybe dad will be at the hospital entrance armed with a video camera. Melinda, however, got the paparazzi treatment, with cameras from news outlets all over Southern California.

"This doesn't happen every day. In my 30 years here, ... this is the first time it ever happened that we were able to discharge a baby who weighed less than 400 grams, or 300 grams," Ramanathan said. They plan to monitor Melinda's health for the next six years.

Melinda's mother, Haydee Ibarra of Granada Hills, says she's so excited to bring her home.

"I'm just happy that she's doing well and that she'd doing better than she was before. I'm happy that I'm finally going to take her home…"