DOYAN, N.D. — Tuesday, May 21, marked the first full day on the family farm for a little girl who lives near Devils Lake.
It's actually the first time Claire Demarais breathed fresh air for more than a few minutes outside. After having two boys, she is the little girl Ashley and Josh Demarais always wanted. "She's strong, she's beautiful, she's defied every odd that there is," said Ashley Demarais.
Claire has spent her entire life in the hospital. A total of 578 days. It's believed no other child has been hospitalized that long since birth at Sanford Health.
"The rollercoaster that just kind of never stops. You would have really good days, then take five steps back," Ashley Demarais said. ADVERTISEMENT Claire Marie Demarais was born premature at 27 weeks.
She weighed 1 pound 8 ounces. Doctors immediately diagnosed her with chronic lung disease and a rare condition that causes the loss of proteins from the digestive tract. "Her body just filled with fluid and the protein really was lost into all of her body and was really swollen, probably like 5 pounds of extra fluids swollen," said Andrea Peterson, a nurse with Sanford Health.
Last June, on the same day she was scheduled to go home to the family farm in Doyan for the first time, doctors sent her to a special lung center in Denver after she became critically ill. After several months there, doctors in Denver said there was nothing more they could do. A week after Thanksgiving, Claire's family brought her back to Sanford Chi.
