A Taylorsville family believes “God’s will” is the only way to describe the unexpected birth and miraculous survival of their child.
Carmen Melendez didn’t even know she was pregnant when the ailing woman went into her bathroom on March 2, 2013 — five years ago this month — and, to everyone’s surprise, gave birth to a daughter.
Symptoms of pregnancy that the Puerto Rico native experienced while giving birth to five older children were not obvious this time to the experienced mother.
While Melendez experienced nausea, swelling and weight gain during her pregnancy, those symptoms were attributed to negative side effects of a new blood pressure medication.
After giving birth, Melendez started yelling for her husband, Federico Ojeda. After the initial shock of walking into the situation, Ojeda nudged the newborn, who made noises confirming she was alive.
Born two months premature at a little more than 3 pounds, Amie Ojeda-Melendez spent the next two months at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health.
Serious developmental problems regarding her heart, lungs, digestive system and blood required long-term care of physicians and staff at the Indianapolis hospital.
Although her parents never failed to make a daily visit, they knew the odds were not on Amie’s side. Ojeda described persistent fear that his daughter might perish at any moment as horrible.
Amie stopped breathing multiple times, Melendez said. But the tough little girl displayed a remarkable will to survive, her father said. Suddenly, the sum of experiences seemed to indicate that providence was on his daughter’s side, the father said.
“She’s a miracle,” was how Torres phrased it, when her niece was brought home for the first time just before Mother’s Day 2013.
In those five years, family members have come to believe that Amie, who will enter kindergarten at Taylorsville Elementary later this year, has a special destiny in this world.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
