I was 27 weeks pregnant with my first child when I realized something was not right. I had gained a large amount of weight in three days and started to feel very weird.

On November 8, 2001, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe pain in my right side. I tried to make myself comfortable to see if the pain would go away but by 6 in the morning I was on the floor in the hospital screaming in pain.

The doctors started to do a test and by noon they had to send me to another hospital because I had the HELLP syndrome and my baby had to be delivered in order to save my life and the baby's.

At 2 o'clock I arrived at the other hospital and they took me straight to the operating room. I had a 2-pound, 12-inch baby girl. They didn't let me see her until the next day because I was so sick, but when I did I was in shock. She was all hooked up to many, many machines and you could not really tell what she looked like.

She had surgery at 4 days old on her intestine. She was in the hospital until January 18, 2002. She then came home on oxygen and a heart monitor. She was on that at home for about one more month. Then she was totally released from the doctor's care except for normal checkups.

She is now almost 5 years old and you would never know she was a preemie. The only thing that she now has problems with is her vision, which she wears glasses for. She is very smart and very loving. She is an angel sent by God.