Tiffani Butler holds her 9-month-old son Cameron as she moves him from his bed to the floor for playtime, then bath time on Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Cameron has been in the hospital since was born on August 24, 2015 with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, a condition where a hole or opening in the diaphragm allows the stomach organs to migrate into the chest, causing underdeveloped lung issues.

Inside the Butler home in Kokomo, Indiana, is a small room with walls painted light blue. In that room is a crib with a large stuffed yellow duck tucked in the corner. Placed across the crib bars is a quilt.

There are some baby clothes hanging in the closet — perfect for a baby boy.

“This room, it’s not totally done,” Dennis Butler said. “But if they called tomorrow, this room not totally being done sure as heck isn’t going to keep us from bringing him home.”

The call Dennis hopes for would come from the neonatal intensive-care unit at St. Vincent Women’s Hospital where his son, Cameron Duke Butler, has spent the first nine months of his life because of a rare medical condition.

Since Cameron’s birth on Aug. 24, 2015, he’s only seen the walls of the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. But his parents, Dennis and Tiffani Butler, are looking forward to the day when they can show their son his very own room.

“It’s got his crib. It’s got his dresser and it’s got his TV,” Dennis Butler said.

And that’s all Cameron needs in his little “man-cave,” Dennis Butler added while embracing his wife in the nursery room before telling his son’s story, which began in 2015 just before he and his wife learned the sex of their baby.

Tiffani Butler remembered what happened in detail after the doctor informed her she would have a boy.

“I tried to keep a calm face,” she told the Kokomo, Indiana Tribune.

The couple joked about her desire to have a girl.

“I literally said, ‘It’s a boy, but at least it’ll be healthy,’ not even thinking that anything would be wrong,” Tiffani Butler said.

Shortly after learning the sex of the child, Dennis Butler said he could sense something was bothering the nurse who took the ultrasound.

“She left and we waited on the OB/GYN to come in,” he said. “She finally showed up and told us that they suspected that he had a condition called congenital diaphragmatic hernia.”

At that moment, their excitement froze and worry crept in. For Tiffani Butler, this was her first child. And for Dennis Butler, the father of a now-13-year-old, the thought of possibly losing a son shortly after birth weighed heavily.

“We were overcome with fear,” Dennis Butler said. “Fear of the unknown…our little guy wasn’t even here yet and he has a problem.”

Cameron had a hole in his diaphragm that allowed his stomach organs to migrate into his chest. These organs usually migrate into the chest cavity during the child’s vital lung development stages. Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, also known as CHD for short, caused Cameron to have underdeveloped lungs, while also pushing his heart to the right side of his chest.

The cardiologist the Butlers met with following the ultrasound said Cameron had no chance of survival. Tiffani Butler’s baby shower was scheduled for the Saturday before that meeting. But because she was unsure of the severity of the situation, she had it cancelled.

“At that point I was like, how can I sit through a baby shower and get all these gifts?” she said. “If he’s not going to make it, that’s going to be even more heart-wrenching for me. So we never had a baby shower.”

The following weeks consisted of more tests, leading up to a meeting where doctors provided more insight to Cameron’s chances of survival.

“Everyone was at this meeting,” Dennis Butler said. “My parents, Tiff’s parents, my sister, along with Tiff’s brother and about 20 doctors and nurses.”

During the meeting, Butler said the doctors prepared to tell them Cameron’s chances of survival, but he immediately stopped them.

“I explained to the doctor that this is a Butler and that he was a fighter,” Dennis Butler said. “He was going to surprise them and prove them wrong. He is either going to make it or he wasn’t and as far as we were concerned that was a 50/50 chance.”

Dennis said he knew the doctor’s odds would be much worse, and he just didn’t want to accept that.

Leading up to delivery, the hospital tried to prepare the Butlers for every possibility. When Cameron was born at 8:24 a.m. Aug. 24, 2015, doctors were already prepared to place him on a breathing machine within an hour.

But Cameron did much better than expected. His lungs worked on their own for 15 hours before he needed to be placed on the hospital’s heart and lung bypass machine.

Dennis Butler boasted that it was Cameron’s way of showing the doctors what a Butler is made of.

For the next several months, Cameron underwent many more tests. While Cameron faced more complications, he ultimately pushed through.

Dennis Butler spent many days over the last few months driving back and forth to Indianapolis from Kokomo with his daughter, Maddie, to visit Cameron as often as they could. Tiffani Butler, who quit her job to be by Cameron’s side in the hospital, said this experience has strengthened the family’s faith, and brought them all much closer together.

“It’s amazing what a little boy can do to bring so many people together,” she said.

And, although Cameron is still fighting day-to-day to breathe on his own, the Butlers have faith that one day soon they’ll be able to bring him home and he’ll get to lie in his own bed, in his own room.

Cameron’s story isn’t close to being finished. Dennis Butler says he realizes how fortunate they are. And for that, the Butlers are grateful.

“We know we’re blessed,” Dennis Butler said. “I almost feel bad saying it, but we’re the lucky ones.There are people out there that have not had the benefit of their child surviving, and that’s a reality. We could’ve been in their shoes. We were scared, but we can never really honestly say that we know what they went through.”

Ball writes for the Kokomo, Indiana Tribune.