Baby Was Born with a Hole in Her Heart When Hurricane Hit (Exclusive)

Today, Kayla Welch is a healthy 20-year-old woman with a bright future ahead of her, including a college degree that’s just months away. But twenty years ago, she came into the world as a premature baby with a hole in her heart — and she was still in the hospital when Hurricane Katrina hit.

“I tell everybody, ‘This kid here, she is a miracle baby,” Paula, 46, of Minden, La., tells PEOPLE. “Hands down, 100% a miracle baby.

Kayla — whose survival story first appeared in the Dec. 26, 2005 issue of PEOPLE — was born 14 weeks early on May 30, 2005, at a hospital in Shreveport, La.

“The doctors did some tests and found that I had an abnormality to where I would never be able to carry a child to term,” Paula recalls.

Her newborn had underdeveloped lungs and a hole in her heart — and a medication she was taking for her heart resulted in a piece of her intestine having to be removed. “Then everything was fine,” her mom says. “Like nothing ever happened.”

Kayla was later transferred to a New Orleans children’s hospital so that she could receive additional specialized care.

Paula says that she and her then-fiancé, who is Kayla’s biological father, were told that their baby would stay at the facility for the next three-and-a-half months — and, since they lived in Bossier City at the time, which is about three hours away, they traveled to New Orleans on the weekends to see her.

Right before Katrina struck, Paula and her fiancé were in the hospital’s waiting room with other families when staffers politely asked them to leave, which Kayla adamantly didn’t want to do, but had no choice.

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Despite having to go back to their home in Bossier City, Paula was kept up to date about Kayla’s condition from the nurses.

“They were absolutely just wonderful,” she says. “I mean, they were literally losing their houses but were there with the children and taking care of them. And every hour on the hour, her nurse kept me informed on how everything was going, that they were in a safe spot.”

Ultimately, a decision was made to transport all of the children, including Kayla, to another hospital in Baton Rouge. “It was just a crazy time,” says Paula, but fortunately, “the whole thing went so smoothly.”

Paula wasn’t able to see Kayla for two weeks, which was incredibly difficult. “As a parent being separated from a child for any length of time, it’s horrible,” she says. “But then to have a natural disaster of that caliber come through, and you’re seeing what you’re seeing on television — I mean, it still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.”

After those two weeks were up, Kayla was discharged from the Baton Rouge hospital and put on an apnea monitor that checked her heart rate at home. “It did everything,” says Paula. “That joker would go off when the fire truck drove by. It was insane.”

“When PEOPLE interviewed me last and came to our home, she was actually attached to one at that time,” she adds. “That was only for about a year. She was fine after that. To date, she has no medical issues, doing great and living her life.”

Paula is no longer with Kayla’s biological father and has since gotten married to a man whose last name Kayla has adopted as her own. She marvels at how much Kayla, who now lives with a boyfriend, has overcome since her premature birth and the chaotic events following the hurricane.

“The Lord was working out for us obviously because she’s still here today,” Paula says. “Like I said, she has no medical issues that we know of because of her being born so early. She’s doing great. Absolutely wonderful.”