PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL -- It's taken a lot of slow painful steps to get here but fore the first time in almost four months Cameron Pirozzi is wearing her own pajamas, getting ready to sleep in her own bed.
"It's really nice," she says
For the 3rd grader who lives for dancing, the music stopped when she came down with a cough.
Despite initial tests for Swine Flu that came back negative, it turns out it was the H1N1 virus that attacked the asthmatic's lungs and left her fighting for her life.
Cameron tells NewsChannel 5, "I thought, 'Could I be saved? Could the doctors help me?"
She doesn't remember the 6 weeks she spent in a coma but recalls waking up.
"I knew it was for a good reason I was in the hospital but it was scary to know that it had been such a long time," Cameron explains.
From the initial scare to determination, Cameron knew immediately that she had a lot of work to do.
"I thought, 'How am I gonna learn to walk again? How am I gonna learn to eat by myself? How am I gonna learn these things?" Cameron says.
It was tough but she did re-learn it all.
Her mother, Kelly Pirozzi, tells NewsChannel 5, "As a doctor said at the hospital and we've said all along, she's a miracle, an absolute miracle!"
Their home in Palm Beach Gardens decorated to celebrate that miracle and Cameron's birthday.
Although she won't be able to dance at her party, and still needs a hand from dad, just 2 days before her 9th birthday, this old soul says the lessons she learned through her struggle are her gift.
"It all seems like it happened for a reason," she says. "Everyone has hard times in their life once but you'll always get better if you believe in yourself."
Cameron says other than dancing, she's most excited to return to school at Saint Mark's Episcopal.
Since she's still going through rehabilitation, her mother says it could be a while.
In the meantime, she'll get to see her classmates at a fundraiser they're holding for her at the Gardens Mall Center Court on Thursday, November 12 from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
There will be a Lily Pulitzer fashion show as well as food and drinks provided by Brio.
Tickets are $25 and all proceeds will go to the Pirozzi family.
