A record-setting five months later, the world’s smallest preterm infant was able to go home.
In September of 2018, at the 24th week of pregnancy, the baby was delivered in one of Tokyo’s maternity hospitals weighing only 268 grams and measuring just 22 cm in length.
A giant onion may fit inside of it. The staff at the hospital dubbed him «mini-miracle» because of his remarkable recovery. The Japanese medical team gave him no hope of life, but they tried all they could to save him.
Immediately, he was put in an incubator, a special device for newborns born too soon. Back when he was a newborn, the infant was fed through probe; however, he is now exclusively breastfed.
During the five months that Ryusuke spent in the hospital, his mother pumped milk, and physicians soaked tampons in it and delivered it to the baby’s mouth so that he might get beneficial ingredients.
The baby’s mother recalls that time as the most trying of her life. To be honest, she never really thought the baby had a chance, but she prayed constantly anyhow.
His skin was so thin and translucent that his mother was unable to even touch him. And when the scales started showing a few additional kilos, the mother was over the moon.
In the end, everything turned out OK. Doctors say the baby did as well in terms of development as term infants.
The infant was released from the hospital at 3.2 kilos, the weight of a healthy newborn, after five months of constant therapy and breastfeeding.
Now that there is no longer any danger to his health, he may develop normally as a youngster.
