Mummy’s little miracle
Born 14 weeks early weighing just 1lb 6oz, Ella’s battling spirit amazes docs.. and her parents
A TOT who was born weighing just 1lb 6oz with her lungs not fully developed has been hailed a “wee miracle” after winning her fight for life without the need of a ventilator.
Ella Young was so premature, she looked like “a 3D picture in the womb” as she lay clinging to life in an incubator.
Medics had to wrap her in a plastic bag as soon as she was born to stop her body going into hypothermic shock.
But despite being born 14 weeks early with her lungs severely underdeveloped, Ella managed to take her first breath on her own.
And during her 80 days in Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, she never once had to be hooked up to a ventilator to help her breathe.
Instead, shortly after birth the tot was given oxygen via a mask and a less invasive treatment as part of a medical trial, which saw doctors briefly insert a narrow tube in her airway to give her life-saving proteins which stop the lungs from collapsing.
Proud mum Catherine said the trial procedure “saved Ella from having to be fully ventilated and may well have given her lungs a better chance”.
Now aged 14 months, Ella has astounded everyone with her incredible
resilience and she is already on to her next challenge – learning to walk.
Catherine, 40, from Rutherglen, near Glasgow, suffered a placental abruption and Ella had to be delivered by emergency C-section on May 15 last year.
Catherine, who also has a son, Reece, 21, said: “I was just in shock. I was only 26 weeks pregnant and it was bizarre to think she shouldn’t be here yet.
“She was just so tiny. She almost looked like a 3D picture in the womb – her skin was so translucent, you could see all her muscles and bones.”
Catherine, a health and safety adviser, said the experience was “a scary and emotional time” for her and husband Greig. But Ella was finally allowed home on August 2 last year – 17 days before her due date.
Catherine said: “Now there’s nothing delicate about her. She’s got a wee belly and is a pretty chunky baby – and she’s full of mischief.
“My mum said I should keep her clothes for her dolls for when she’s older. “She’s a wee star. “And all the staff at Queen Elizabeth were amazing.”