SHE'S MY MIRACLE

Armani was born with a rare swelling condition that has led her mom to affectionately call her "my mini Hulk" 

- LUKE ANDREWS

HER parents were told to prepare for the worst – their daughter had such a rare condition she was given a zero chance of survival.

But baby Armani Milby has defied the odds. She’s now nine months old and is happy and thriving despite her rocky start to life and the challenges she has yet to face.

The little girl, who’s from Campbellsville in Kentucky in the US, was born with a severe form of lymphangioma, a condition that causes benign tumours to grow in the lymphatic vessels – tubelike structures that carry fluid around the body.

The swelling has caused her upper torso and arms to become disproportionately bulky, leading her mom, Chelsey (33), to give her the affectionate nickname “mini Hulk”.

“She looked like a mini bodybuilder,” she says.

Armani spent the first three months of her life in a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she received specialist surgery to drain excess fluid from her arms. She will also need further surgery to remove excess skin caused by the stretching.

Now that some of the fluid has been drained, she looks much better, Chelsey says. “Now she’s squishy. I just call her my little squishy baby. She’s doing very well.”

Her daughter’s condition, which can be caused by genetics or hormone problems, was diagnosed at 17 weeks of pregnancy.

Armani weighed nearly 5,5kg when she was born and Chelsey was so big at the end of the pregnancy that strangers would ask if she was having triplets.

Doctors told Chelsey and her husband, Blake, there was no chance their baby would make it – but Armani cried as soon as she was delivered via C-section at 33 weeks and has been fighting ever since.

CHELSEY, who has two older children, wept when she was told her baby had the condition. “I didn’t understand what was going on.