KANSAS CITY (AP) — A teen who became the first patient at a Kansas City hospital to walk while on life support has recently returned home.

Zei was the first Children’s Mercy patient to walk while on ECMO life support. This week she walked out of the front doors of the hospital after more than 450 days, just in time to be home for her birthday. Read more about her powerful journey back home.

Zei Uwadia left Children’s Mercy Hospital on Thursday after being hospitalized for more than a year for unexplained lung failure. Zei will continue to recover at home in Wichita, Kansas.

The now 17-year-old inspired hundreds of thousands of people who watched videos of her walking down the hospital’s halls while on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), an invasive form of life support.

Doctors still don’t know what caused Zei’s lungs to fail, but she’s no longer on ECMO and instead uses a tracheostomy, a tube in her neck that helps her breathe.

Zei says she’s looking forward to having more freedom.