Tiny Infant Loses Her Struggle for Survival : Medicine: Sheyanne Welch, who weighed 12 ounces at birth, dies of complications from surgery to correct a perforated intestine. Earlier, her progress had amazed doctors.

ANAHEIM — Sheyanne Danielle Welch, the smallest baby ever born at Martin Luther Hospital, died over the weekend, ending a monthlong struggle for life.

“We all got attached,” said hospital spokesman Dennis Gaschen. “There’s no way you can’t get attached to a fighter like Sheyanne. I think the staff has suffered a loss; everyone is saddened throughout the hospital.”

Gaschen said the baby died of complications after a four-hour surgery performed at Long Beach Community Hospital to correct a perforated intestine. Sheyanne, he said, had been transferred to the Long Beach hospital Saturday afternoon after her conditioned worsened.

The perforated intestine is “a common problem that premature babies suffer,” the spokesman said. Often, he said, the injury occurs during the transitional period when the baby--whose intestines are underdeveloped--is beginning to be fed. “This is one of the hurdles that a premature infant must overcome and unfortunately Sheyanne didn’t,” Gaschen said.

Sheyanne was born 16 weeks prematurely, on Aug. 3, to Jim and Robin Welch of Anaheim. The infant weighed a mere 12 ounces, prompting doctors to put her chances for survival at about 10%. The baby had been delivered early by emergency Cesarean section to save the life of her 37-year-old mother, who suffered from Hellp syndrome, an affliction causing hypertension, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet levels.

As the days turned into weeks, however, doctors said they were “amazed” at the progress of the tiny infant girl who slept 15 to 20 hours a day in an incubator, wearing a tiny white bonnet knitted for her by hospital volunteers.

“She has taken on a personality and a special spirit,” Dr. Leonard L. Fox, associate director of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, said 10 days after Sheyanne’s birth. “We are learning a lot from this baby and are rewriting medical textbook chapters. It’s an extraordinary event.”

Saturday afternoon, however, the baby began showing signs of intestinal stress, prompting doctors to transfer her to the Long Beach hospital, which is better equipped to perform emergency neonatal surgery. She died about 10 p.m.

Gaschen said Sheyanne’s parents plan a private memorial ceremony later this week.