Reunited: A once-sickly child makes her triumphant return to visit the hospital and staff that saved her life.

McALLEN — The newborn girl entered the world three months early, weighing just 1 pound 13 ounces.

Her mother, unable to care for her, gave her up for adoption. McAllen Medical Center placed her in its neonatal intensive care unit, located on the third floor.

Normally, the staff there works with new mothers, and together they care for premature babies. A combination of medical science and human touch brings the infants to full strength. The mothers bid thanks and farewell, and they leave for home.

On July 23, 2006, the preemie girl came to the third floor.

She came to the unit with no name, no family and no toys — with virtually nothing but a collection of medical problems and special needs.

On Saturday, she returned to the third floor weighing about 20 pounds. She walked through the room, she smiled and she posed for pictures. She brought with her a pair of beaming parents.

She also brought many of her former nurses to tears. In the same room where they once fought for her life, the staff of the neonatal intensive care unit reunited with the girl.

They decked out the former preemie care area with Sesame Street tablecloths and little red balloons. The girl had left the hospital after a couple adopted her last year. On Saturday, they celebrated her vibrant health.

The only baby without a toy or a name

One baby stood out.

She needed nutritional boosts and constant physician care just like the other premature newborns. But unlike them, she had no balloons, blankets or baby clothes at her bedside. She didn’t have a single toy.

Motherless, fatherless, she waited for adoption.

The nurses, the doctors and even the secretary on the preemie ward each pitched in 25 cents to buy her a plush, pink poodle that they then placed near her bed.

They had bought a toy for … Baby. Wait, they remember saying, we can’t just call her Baby.

So the staff compiled a list of biblical baby names. Secretary Lydia Moncure remembers how the settled on a name for the girl.

Ester, Rebecca, Ruth — they read off the names to her, but with no reaction from the infant. Then they tried another one.

“She kind of twitched the first time we said Naomi,” Moncure said. “So we said it again, and she just seemed to respond to it.”

Today, the girl still has the pink poodle, though her name has since been changed, replaced by one chosen by her new parents.

Bound for foster care

The night-shift nurse worried about Naomi.

The baby had come into her care three months earlier. The little one cried and fussed all the time, suffering from maladies ranging from asthma to rashes. Bianca Garza cared for her that first night.

“I looked at you and I was terrified,” Garza told the girl Saturday. “I thought I would not know how to handle you. You were very small, feeble.”

But the baby fought through her illnesses and grew stronger. Still, Garza worried that no one would be found to adopt the tiny girl.

Some couples who did consider becoming Naomi’s parents balked once they learned about her health.

Garza and her co-workers prayed for parents for the girl, and their answer came.

“We were all in tears,” Garza said. “We thought even before meeting the parents how good-hearted these people were.”

The return

The girl’s parents took her to breakfast the morning of the party.

Her father ordered pancakes, eggs and sausages. The girl ate more of it than he did.

Nick Eidietis, 28, adopted the girl with his wife. He laughed as he talked about her robust health and her healthy appetite.

“She’s not just doing well,” Eidietis said. “She’s doing great, fantastic.”

Eidietis and his wife, Sara Moriarty, 27, changed the baby’s name to Elise Eidietis. They live in San Diego now, where he works as a research scientist.

When they adopted Elise, they spent about a week at her bedside on the third floor, watching as the nurses cared for the girl. They held her tiny body against their chests. The human contact often benefits the little ones, the nurses say.

The couple watched as the staff brought her toys and interacted with her. It was clear they had forged a special relationship.

Before the couple met the baby, the adoption agency warned them the nursing staff was very protective.

On Saturday, Eidietis recorded the nurses, staffers and doctors telling stories about Elise’s first three months. About how small and weak she was. About how she fought and grew into the girl who smiled and danced at the party.

“I don’t know what you guys did, but it worked,” Eidietis told the staff on the third floor. The nurses and others stood before him with tears in their eyes. “She’s doing fantastically, and you guys really deserve to see her.”

A smile on her face and her tongue sticking out, Elise let out a loud coo. The congregation responded with a collective “aw.”

They had met the small girl as Naomi, who cried every night and fought off death.

Now they had met Elise, who smiles with treats in her belly — the proud daughter of two young parents.

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Zack Quaintance covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.