SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Dionna Ambrielle Miracle Taylor’s birth is one for the record books. When she was born on January 27, 2020 at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport she weighed just 11 ounces, making her the smallest-ever baby to be born and discharged from a hospital in Louisiana.

When Dionna was discharged from Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport – St. Mary Medical Center on Wednesday, she was dressed in a cap and gown for her graduation ceremony from the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to home. The hospital says her weight at discharge was 4 pounds, 13 ounces.

That’s about the size of a human heart and lighter than a can of soda.

“We didn’t know if she was going to make it or not, but the good Lord had other plans and my baby’s here. So that’s why she’s my miracle baby,” said her mother, Penny Taylor.

Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport NICU Medical Director Dr. Nitin Walyat says despite some setbacks during her four months in the hospital, Dionna is going home without many of the developmental issues preemies face.

Besides being the smallest-ever baby born in Louisiana, Dionna also has the distinction of being one of Ochsner LSU Health’s patients that was transferred from its Academic Medical Center on Kings Highway to its St. Mary Medical Center. The transfer of the Women’s and Children’s Unit was to make room for additional COVID-19 patients.