‘Miracle’ of baby born at 22 weeks and just 14oz

THE parents of a baby girl born at 22 weeks and weighing only 14 oz have told how the life of their ‘little miracle’ was saved by doctors and nurses at two hospitals.

Claire Elwin and Dean Blakely described how their daughter Darcie needed a heart operation and stopped breathing three times, including once when her ‘petrified’ mother had to resuscitate her.

Care assistant Miss Elwin, 37, from Havant in Hampshire, had not even known she was pregnant until a week before the birth, when Mr Blakely took her to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth after she began bleeding heavily.

Miss Elwin said: ‘They did an emergency scan and they found the baby was perfectly all right, but I had a placental node that was bleeding.’

After four days of observation she was discharged – only to return two days later when the bleeding returned. Hours later Darcie was born – two weeks before the legal abortion limit of 24 weeks – and so small that Miss Elwin’s waters didn’t break.

She said: ‘She was “born in the bag” but when the doctors took her out she tried to breathe. The consultant said, “all the time she is fighting, we will fight with her”. And that’s exactly what they did.’

Darcie was whisked away to the neonatal intensive care unit, top picture, and it was six hours before Miss Elwin got to see her. She said: ‘We were confronted by a baby who was no bigger than my hand. It was a scary, scary moment.’

For four months Darcie stayed in the unit, slowly gaining in bodyweight and strength. In September she had an operation at Southampton Hospital to close a heart duct, and was eventually allowed home – but then stopped breathing and turned ‘pure white’.

‘I was petrified,’ Miss Elwin said. ‘She was making no effort to breathe. I did mouth-tomouth for what felt like forever, though the ambulance really only took a few minutes.’

Today at eight months, bottom picture, Darcie is a healthy little girl. Hospital consultant Dr Tim Scorrer said: ‘One of the most enjoyable aspects of our job is to follow up infants like Darcie and see them progressing over time.’