23rd June 2003
UK'S TINIEST BABY BEATS THE ODDS AND SURVIVES
The UK's tiniest baby, who was born three months prematurely and weighed a mere 12 ounces, has astounded doctors by surviving.
When tiny Aaliyah Hart was born on May 27th at Birmingham City Hospital she was so small that she fitted into the palm of her mother's hand. Thirty-seven-year-old Lorraine and her husband, 30-year-old Ricardo, had been trying for a baby for 15 years, but doctors warned them that Aaliyah only had a 10 per cent chance of survival.
Aaliyah had grown very slowly whilst in the womb, something which was detected through a slow heartbeat during pregnancy, and the couple had been warned that there could be problems ahead. However, they were determined to go ahead with the pregnancy and had faith that their baby would survive. When Aaliyah arrived prematurely, her tiny size was initially a shock to the couple.
"I literally just cried and cried. I could not believe that something so small could survive," Lorraine told reporters. "She was so tiny, but she was so active. Her hand were going, she was her own little person and I cried for a long time. She was surviving - that was my main concern."
Until recently, baby Aaliyah has been on a ventilator. Although she's progressed enough to be taken off the ventilator, she's still being fed by tube. The consultant in charge of caring for her, Dr. Jeff Bissenden, is astonished at her progress. "It is amazing that this baby did not die," he said, "If growth is retarded, the supply of nutrients is usually so poor that the baby is starved of oxygen and is stillborn."
Remarkably, Aaliyah isn't believed to be the tiniest baby in the world - that record is held by a baby born in America, who weighed 11 ounces at birth.
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