4-year-old with cerebral palsy celebrates after taking first independent steps

- Defying doctors' expectations, a four-year-old MI girl with cerebral palsy has taken her first steps ever, all by herself.

Maya, four, takes her first steps as her family watches on.

The girl was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was a year old.

"I even took a big step!" she says.

"I'm walking!" Maya says, smiling and laughing before adding: "Yes!"

In 2013, Maya was born prematurely at 26 weeks and weighed 1 pound, 10 ounces, according to her mother, Ann Tisdale.

Maya, who is four, had to use canes and walkers to move around before her surgery.

Maya's family stated that the procedure would reduce Maya's spasticity permanently and give Maya to live without much pain. Physical therapy can help loosen muscles but, depending on the severity, some children may never walk and others may need a walker, braces or other forms of mobility assistance.

So watching Maya walk - just a smidge past seven weeks postsurgery - left her family in shock and disbelief.

This simple moment most of us take for granted is nothing short of a miracle, as doctors believed Maya wouldn't be able to walk for another six months following a major spinal procedure in early May, Daily Mail reported. "She's just kind of blowing it out of the water".

The now-viral clip shows Maya sitting on a small bench and teetering for her first two steps before plopping back down on the seat. "She still has the damage in her brain and she still has some tightness in her legs".

She spends several weeks in physical therapy. According to the family's YouCaring page, she spent the first 87 days of her life in the hospital's NICU before being sent home.