When Sabrina Carreon was born at just 24 weeks, she was small enough to fit in her father’s hand.

But today the “million-dollar baby” is happy, healthy and celebrating her 2nd birthday.

Sabrina’s birth was a challenging one owing to her mother, Kaye, suffering from preeclampsia — high blood pressure in pregnant women.

Mrs Carreon was in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and receiving medication for the condition when Sabrina was born at the weight of just 1lb. She and Mrs Carreon were promptly flown to Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward Health, in Fort Lauderdale, but after a matter of weeks her parents were forced to leave young Sabrina at the hospital for work.

Father Ronan Carreon said: “It was very tough for us. At first Sabrina was critically ill and in an incubator on the plane from Bermuda. She underwent a series of tests, but everything was OK.

“After about three weeks of Sabrina and Kaye going to Florida I had to return back to Bermuda to work. I had to leave Kaye in the hospital for another 2½ months. That was very hard.

“Then I went back on Christmas Eve to spend the holidays with them. I was surprised to see my baby having no more life support or tubes. It was big progress.”

In February last year, they thought they would be able to bring Sabrina home to Bermuda, but medical staff discovered she had a hernia requiring surgery.

“All the time she was being observed. The doctor said, ‘We don’t know exactly what will happen, we are expecting ups and downs,’” Mr Carreon said.

Sabrina had never been off oxygen and, after her hernia operation, doctors diagnosed the need for heart surgery for coiling of a PDA, a heart condition that can affect young children, at the nearby Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, in early April 2015.

“We went back for surgery but she was not ready so we had to come back to Bermuda again. We were still in Bermuda when the surgery took place and that was very tough for us,” Mr Carreon said.

However, the surgery went well and she was successfully discharged on April 27 last year.

Mrs Carreon said: “When she was discharged, some nurses and hospital staff were crying because they were going to miss Sabrina. Sabrina became famous in the hospital and everyone knew her, even the parents of the other babies.

“She is 30lbs now. She is still small for her age but she is very active. She is walking at the normal age for a baby and has never been back to hospital apart from normal check-ups. We are so happy and so relieved.”

While the medical bills for young Sabrina topped $1 million, Naz Farrow, Colonial Medical Group chief operating officer for health, said that this was a perfect example of why people need to get medical insurance in place, as a premature birth can be very expensive.

“At Colonial, in a situation like this, our focus is on saving lives and ensuring that our client has access to the best possible care improving their chances of a positive outcome. Money was not the issue,” she said.

“We really are so happy for the Carreon family. They had to undergo the kind of ordeal that parents dread. To have been away from their child while she underwent surgery must have been awful.

“I am so glad to see that Sabrina is doing well now and I hope she continues to have a lovely, healthy childhood and I hope she has a wonderful birthday today.”

Mr Carreon expressed his gratitude to his employers at Speciality Restaurant, along with friends and family and staff at KEMH, Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward Health, and Colonial.