When Abby Steer was born at Cox Hospital in Springfield, Mo., she appeared to be a normal baby girl – perfectly happy and perfectly healthy. But just hours after her delivery, doctors confronted her parents with devastating news. Their newborn daughter had a malignant glioblastoma tumor covering more than 75 percent of the right half of her brain.

Abby’s parents, Rachel and Michael, prayed for a miracle. Abby spent her first several weeks in the hospital, but after her tumor was deemed inoperable by the hospital’s neurosurgical team, she was sent home on hospice care.

Refusing to give up hope, Rachel and Michael e-mailed images of Abby’s tumor to the staff at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A few days later, the Steers got their miracle. Le Bonheur neurosurgeon Dr. Rick Boop called to say he thought Abby still had a chance. Twenty minutes later, the Steers were on their way to Memphis.

One day after her admission to Le Bonheur, Abby began having difficulty breathing as a result of increased intracranial pressure from her tumor. She was moved to the ICU and underwent brain surgery five days later.

Two hours after Abby went into surgery, Le Bonheur’s Dr. Robert Sanford – who operated on Abby with Boop – came out to speak with Rachel and Michael.

His words will forever be remembered by the Steers – “We got at least 99 percent of it.” An MRI confirmed that no specks of the tumor remained, and showed that Abby had substantial healthy brain tissue on the right side of her brain and a chance for normal neurological development. Abby was soon transferred to St. Jude, where she began the first of many rounds of chemotherapy.

Today, Abby has been hailed by her doctors as a miracle baby. Eleven months after surgery, Abby has successfully completed 12 rounds of chemo and is experiencing very few side effects from the tumor. Although there was a risk of paralysis on her left side, Abby frequently uses both sides of her body, sucking her left thumb, standing, sitting and shifting her weight. According to her speech therapist, Abby’s language skills are advanced for her age.

“We’re just so thankful that we didn’t let anyone else touch her except for Drs. Boop and Sanford,” said Rachel. “We think the world of Le Bonheur and St. Jude.”

On May 1, Abby celebrated another major milestone in her young life – her first birthday.