1 lb. WA ‘miracle’ baby fighting for life. GoFundMe to help Tri-Cities parents be with her

A long-wished-for, 1-pound baby girl from the Tri-Cities is hanging onto life at a Seattle hospital.

“Those that know our family know that my older sister Crystal was finally expecting a baby after so long,” said Crystal Solorio’s sister Vianca Jimenez, of Pasco, in a GoFundMe fundraiser.

Ayla, the child of Solorio and her husband Ruben Hueyotlipa, was born on Oct. 14 at just 23 weeks and 6 days, according to a the online fundraiser.

Hueyotlipa is splitting his time between working in the Tri-Cities to provide the family and traveling to Seattle to be with his wife and new daughter, said Vianca Jimenez, of Pasco, Ayla’s aunt.

Doctors at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland were not able to stop Solorio’s early labor with medication and had to deliver the baby by emergency cesarean section, Jimenez said.

On the baby’s fifth day in the Kadlec neonatal intensive care unit, two brain bleeds were discovered and she was transferred to a Seattle hospital, where she is in stable condition, Jimenez said.

“This is a baby our entire family has prayed for,” Jimenez said.

Solorio of Kennewick had a miscarriage in 2006 and struggled to get pregnant again due to a medical condition until this year at the age of 35, Jimenez said.

Ayla was a “miracle baby,” Jimenez posted.

Pictures show a perfect baby so tiny her hand can hold only the tip of her mother’s finger.

As the family prays for the premature baby to survive, they have been warned by doctors that she might not be able to walk when she is older.

The GoFundMe has a goal to raise $4,000 to help Ayla’s parents afford to stay in Seattle with her. As of Wednesday night, $500 had been raised.

They have not qualified for public housing or government assistance for temporary housing in Seattle, Jimenez said.

The GoFundMe is at bit.ly/BabyAyla.

The family also asks for prayers for Ayla.

This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.