Miracle of boy born inside out
A MIRACLE baby given a five per cent chance of survival after being born inside out has finally been discharged from the care of the hospital that saved him.
Max Staines, four, was born with his stomach, liver and bowels on the outside of his body.
Single mum Lauren, 27, was told he had gastroschisis, a condition where the organs develop outside the body, at her 12- week scan.
Medics warned her that the odds of Max surviving the birth were just five per cent and Lauren was offered an abortion.
But the former cabin crew member refused, and Max defied doctors’ predictions.
He was born in April 2016 after an emergency caesarean section and transferred to St George’s for a six- hour lifesaving operation.
And after four years of regular check- ups, Max was finally fully discharged from St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, in June.
Lauren, from Hook, Hants, said: “Every single day I look at him and think ‘ you are my miracle’.
“Everybody calls him my ‘ miracle baby’ but at the same time we worked bloody hard to get him through this and he fought so hard as well.
“I look back at pictures and realise how far we have come, from worrying that I was going to leave hospital without a baby at all to being as happy as we are now.
“When we were told that he was going to be discharged, it was the perfect piece of the puzzle towards our happy ending.”
Lauren is now speaking out to raise awareness and offer hope to other parents.
She said: “It’s always going to be something that he lives with, we still always need to be careful, but he is not a sick baby any more.”