SHELL ROCK, IA (KWWL/CNN) - It's a story many across Iowa and around the world have followed: A baby is recovering, months after being hit on the head by a softball.
Baby McKenna was at home in her mother's arms Thursday, a place Kassy and Lee Hovenga weren't sure she'd ever be again.
They spent weeks unable to hold their daughter.
"We couldn't make noise in the room," her dad said. "We couldn't touch her."
The parents watched and waited as seizures caused by the brain bleed became more and more frequent, lasting longer.
"She could have a chance to stop breathing," Kassy Hovenga said. "That is not something you want to hear."
McKenna was put into a coma, with ventilator breathing for her. The seizures finally stopped, but that only led to another terrifying moment when doctors went to take the ventilator out.
"I looked up at her stats and her oxygen was 2. Her heart rate was dropping," Lee Hovenga said. "She got close to having to be resuscitated because her heart was about to stop."
McKenna battled through, and after a skull fracture, brain bleed, countless seizures and multiple surgeries, she came home June 11.
"Part of me was terrified leaving the hospital that I wasn't coming home with the same child," Kassy Hovenga said.
Slowly but surely, she has let her parents know she is the same - a smile here and a one moment of laughter.
"We don't even know what struggles she is going to face in future<" he mother said. "They told us we could start to see signs at 6 to 9 months, and she might not show anything until she is starting school. It could be learning disabilities."
At 7 weeks old, McKenna was at a softball park with her mom and dad in May, waiting for dad's game to start. They were on the third-base line behind a fence when the ball struck Kassy Hovenga and McKenna.
For now, the family is soaking up every moment, because McKenna is home.
Friends are hosting a fundraiser for the family Saturday.
