268 grams: World’s smallest surviving boy goes home after 5 months of fighting
A darling little baby boy who was born weighing just 268 grams at birth, the weight equivalent of an apple, has finally been discharged from a hospital in Tokyo after spending five months there fighting for his life.
24 weeks
The little boy is believed to be the smallest baby ever treated. Failing to gain weight, he was born at 24-weeks gestation via emergency caesarian last August at the Keio University Hospital.
During his time in the hospital, the boy grew over 12 times his body weight and was discharged two months after his due date weighing 3.2 kilograms.
What an incredible little fighter
Staff at the Keio University Hospital said that the survival rates for babies weighing less than 300 grams were about 50 percent in Japan.
Aware of the odds, the mother of the child said she couldn’t be happier.
“I can only say I’m happy that he has grown this big because honestly, I wasn’t sure he could survive,” she told Reuters
Clearly, the staff at the hospital are passionate about giving these darling little tiny wonders the best chance at life; but what they’re also doing is offering some hope to other parents of premmie babies.
“I want people to know that babies can return home strong even if they are born small,” said Dr Takeshi Arimitsu, one of the doctors who treated the boy, according to ABC News.
A baby boy weighing just 268 grams (about half-a-pound) at birth was sent home after months in a Tokyo hospital. He became the smallest surviving male baby in the world, Keio University hospital said. https://cbsn.ws/2NuAotm
Posted by CBS Sunday Morning on Wednesday, 27 February 2019
World’s tiniest babies
According to the University of Iowa’s register of ‘The Tiniest Babies’, this little bub is one of 24 born weighing less than 300 grams, and only five boys were in that group.
Prior to this little guy, the smallest boy recorded was born in Germany in 2009 and weighed 274 grams and was aptly nicknamed ‘Tom Thumb’.
The smallest girl, according to the record, was born in Germany in 2015 weighing 252 grams.
To this day, medical experts are not certain why there is a difference in the survival rates of premature babies between the sexes, although some have suggested it may be due to the slower production of boys’ lungs and the differences in cardiovascular responses.
We wish the world’s smallest little boy all the best for his future and have no doubt he will continue to exceed everyone’s expectations.
