Whatever Happened to ... 1993 : Revisiting some of View’s most talked-about stories, we find progress for anxious parents and neon signs, second thoughts about a controversial sect - and pregnant women still craving “magic” salad. : Miracle Baby Victor Now Throws Kisses

“He’s my miracle baby,” Jeri Dominguez says as she scoops her 21-pound 15-month-old son, Victor, into her arms.

A year ago, Victor’s chances for survival were slim (“Born to Fight,” View, Feb. 14, 1993). He was in intensive care at Long Beach Miller Children’s Hospital, where he had been hospitalized since his birth on Sept. 13, 1992.

Born with fluid in his lungs, Victor soon developed bronchial pulmonary disease. For the first 29 days, his muscles were temporarily paralyzed with medication, so he could not exert himself. His fragile body was fed oxygen through a tube.

“Now, he’s off oxygen and all those other monitors,” Dominguez says. “He’s still taking some medication and I give him asthma treatments three times a day, but he’s no longer my wired-up baby. I like to tell everyone that my baby has beaten the odds.”

Yes, little Victor Dominguez has come a long way.

For starters, he’s home in Carson with his sister, Veronica, 7; brother, Joe Jr., 12; his mom and his dad, a machine operator at Breyer’s Ice Cream Co. in Los Angeles.

He says simple words such as mama , and agua (water) and “ba-bab” for food. He waves bye-bye, throws kisses and does the timeout sign used in football games. And in October he started walking.

His mother recalls the day that he was born: “I remember two hours after he was born doctors told me, ‘Miss Dominguez, your baby is very, very sick. We’re giving him 24 hours to see if he’ll make it.’ ”

Make it, he did.

Since his release from the hospital in March, Victor has had to return only for a lung treatment in July.

“Faith has been the glue that has held our family together through all this. Doctors tell me that Victor will outgrow the lung disease between his third and fifth birthdays. They’re just amazed at his progress,” Jeri Dominguez says.

“I thought I would never get to the point where he would be a normal baby, but that’s what he is, a normal baby,” she adds, smothering her son with kisses and hugs. “And a fighter. He entered this world fighting and he’s still fighting. This little kid has a temper!”