A Missouri 2-year-old has spent most of his life in St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), but he was able to go outside for his third time ever in August.
Ke’Aiden Proctor was born weighing just over one pound and requires support just to keep breathing, reports AOL.com.
Hospital nurse Corena Barbee explained Ke’Aiden’s situation to ABC News: “His lungs can’t work on their own so he requires support from a ventilator.”
The doctors are slowly trying to wean the toddler off of the heavier machinery so that they can get him on a home ventilator system. “It’s really hard. Everyone always asks me when he’s going to come home and we don’t have an answer. It’s really hard and frustrating,” Ke’Aiden’s mother, Kindness Singano, said.
In order for Ke’Aiden to go outside, he needs to have several nurses as well as respiratory therapists present, and so he is not able to go out into the hospital gardens very often. It is rare for that many people to have the time to make such a trip. But when they can, Kindness rearranges school and work so that she can be there for her son when he experiences his rare fresh air.
“He was smiling at everyone because it’s a whole different world for him. He’s a people person, so he was smiling and seemed happy. It was a happy day,” she said.
As doctors continue to work with Ke’Aiden, they all hope that he will be able to go home soon. But until then, it’s little moments, like going outside, that matter.