Baby Fights Odds, Survives Scorpion Sting : Medicine: The 13-month-old boy goes home from hospital less than a week after being bitten in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Doctors say few infants survive.

In what his family says is nothing short of a miracle, Anders Bjella came home from the hospital Saturday, just in time for his second Christmas.

The 13-month-old son of Ross and Diane Bjella of Costa Mesa was near death after being stung repeatedly by a scorpion at a Mexican resort Dec. 18.

“It’s a very happy Christmas,” his mother, Diane Bjella, said soon after arriving at the family’s home, which friends had decorated. “He has his spirit back. He looks like himself again.”

Anders is expected to make a full recovery, she said, and doesn’t even have marks on his foot, where he was stung by a scorpion that had crawled into his shoe.

The accident happened as the Bjellas were getting ready to walk to a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, where they were vacationing. Anders’ parents put his shoes on him, and he yelped after taking a couple of steps. His parents said they thought he had hit his mouth, which had been sore because new teeth were coming in.

But during the walk into town, Anders started crying uncontrollably and began frothing at the mouth. His parents rushed him back to their villa and discovered the scorpion when they took off his shoes.

The Bjellas took their son to two hospitals and heard the same bad news at each. There was little that anyone thought could be done for the boy, who had a temperature of 104 and had stopped breathing at times.

At the suggestion of an emergency room doctor, they called a San Diego-based air ambulance and, 17 hours after he was stung, Anders was flown early Monday to San Diego Childrens Hospital.

Anders remained on life support until Wednesday, his parents constantly at his side. “He was a very, very sick youngster,” hospital spokesman Mark Morelli said. “It took about 24 hours to even determine if he was going to live through this.”

About 1,500 people, mostly children under 3 years old, die in Mexico each year from scorpion stings, he said.

Diane Bjella describes her son’s recovery as a miracle. “The doctor at the first hospital said, ‘We don’t see scorpion babies because they all die.’ ”

By Saturday, however, doctors said tests showed that Anders’ heart was beating normally and that he was well enough to go home.

Anders will be checked regularly by his doctors but is not expected to suffer any long-term health problems from the sting, Morelli said.