Cooper Dickert arrived home from Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia with fanfare, as family, friends and neighbors lined the Dickert’s street in North Augusta.

It had been a long road home for Cooper, who had been born at 28 weeks. He weighed just 1 pound and 3 ounces.

“We knew he had Down syndrome, and we also knew that he was really high risk from the time I was probably 16 weeks,” said mom Christa Dickert.

Cooper wasn’t growing much, and it was already known he would have a heart defect. Christa and her husband, Chris Dickert, were given three options: treat it like a normal pregnancy and let it run its natural course, terminate the pregnancy or do a “full court press” and do everything they could to give Cooper the best chance possible.

The Dickerts chose to go all in.

At 28 weeks, Christa underwent an emergency C-section. Cooper had heart surgery at 6 months old and then suffered a series of infections. He spent the entire first year of his life in the NICU at Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia. For a long time, his condition was very fragile.

Cooper finally went home after 372 days in the hospital. Six months later, he was weaned from the tracheotomy tube, feeding tube and ventilator, and began to thrive.

Christa said she and Chris are grateful to have a children’s hospital so close to home.

“If we needed a change of clothes, one of us could go grab them. Our support system was close, like my mom brought us lunch every day. Having the Children’s Hospital right in your back yard is just so nice,” she said.