Hawaii Pacific Health today announced that Kalley-Mae Yee, 4, of Hawaii island, is the 2023 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Champion for Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children.

Yee and her family accepted the honor at the Sheraton Waikiki this morning, and were surprised with a trip to Disneyland in California.

As the Children’s Miracle Network Champion, she will share her story of survival to inspire others throughout the year.

Yee weighed little more than a pound and measured 11.81 inches long when she was born as a “micropreemie” at just 23 weeks old in 2018 to Cherilyn and Kevin Yee.

She was immediately placed in an incubator at Kapiolani’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, with a ventilator to help her breathe.

“I saw how small and fragile she was,” said Cherilyn in a news release. “But when we heard her cry for the first time, it gave us a glimmer of hope. We wanted to enjoy the moment as much as we could and, at the same time, not get our hopes up.”

A few weeks later, doctors would discover a problem with Kalley-Mae’s heart, and determine at 46 days old that she needed open-heart surgery.

In all, the baby girl would stay in NICU for six months, survive two rounds of pneumonia, 10 blood transfusions, and subsequent surgeries on her heart and eyes — but pull through, with the help of a team of Kapiolani doctors, nurses, specialists, therapists, pharmacists and medical staff.

“Every day was a journey,” Kalley-Mae’s dad Kevin said. “Some days, all we could do was try to get from morning to lunchtime, then from lunch to dinner, one step at a time, Everyone at Kapiolani was amazing. They explained every step, were always compassionate and made us feel like we weren’t just patients, but we were family.”

Today, Kalley-Mae loves dancing, jumping, playing on a T-ball team, and “running really, really, really, really fast.”

“She was feisty from day one,” said NICU nurse Lloyda Tamboa. “Even when she could barely move a limb or open her eyes, you could tell she was a fighter. Kalley-Mae is proof that sometimes the teeniest, tiniest babies are the strongest.”

In Hawaii, funds from CMN Hospitals help support key programs and services at Kapiolani that help keiki like Kalley-Mae and others, including the Child Life program, critical care transport team and lifesaving equipment. Gifts in Hawaii stay in the state.

Kapiolani has had a partnership with CMN Hospitals for nearly 40 years.