Premature baby 'Tom Thumb' born at 25 weeks weighing half a pound survives


The baby, who doctors dubbed "Tom Thumb" was less than the length of a sheet of A-4 paper and weighed a fraction over 9.7 ounces (275 grams) when he was born by Caesarean section 15 weeks prematurely at the University of Medicine at Göttingen in western Germany in June 2009.

For 24 hours a day, the child was in an incubator and hooked up to feeding tubes, breathing tubes, a heart monitor, a catheter and a plethora of electronic devices to monitor every vital sign as he faced risks of cerebral hemorrhage or organ failure.

In December, the baby was finally pronounced "stable" after achieving a weight of 8.2lbs - considered an average birth weight in Germany.

Now, nine months after his birth, doctors have allowed the unnamed boy's parents to take him to the family home in Eighsfeld, central Germany, after ruling that he is strong enough to survive.

Read the entire story here.
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Comments

  1. Unknown3/11/10, 1:36 PM

    In 1959 myself, a twin and a triplet were born 12 weeks premature. I weighed 1.5 pounds, my twin weighed two pounds. the triplet (she passed away at 3 weeks old) weighed less than 1 pound. We had no NICU of course. We were given up for adoption (no abortion back then, thank God) and have no deficits or problems. We are now 50 years old and loving life.

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