A baby born after just five months in the womb survived after doctors performed ground-breaking surgery to save her. Abi Peters was four months premature and weighed 1.3lbs when she underwent major abdominal surgery. The newborn was smaller than surgeon Zahid Mukhtar’s hand. She is believed to be the youngest ever patient to survive the operation after being born at just 23-weeks and weighing the same as just over half a bag of sugar. Doctors at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, had less than a 10% chance that the surgery would be a success. However on Monday, four months and a day after the operation, little Abi was discharged from hospital for the very first time. She is the youngest to survive the surgery Speaking to the Standard, her mum, Louise, 32, said: ‘It’s been such a rollercoaster and it was so scary when it first happened. They told us all the risks but they didn’t say this is the youngest baby in the world who has been operated on, otherwise it might have scared us too much.’ Louise from Hinchley Wood in Surrey added that the operation happened at such a young age because waiting even a day or two, ‘she would have been dead’. The mother said she had gone into early labour in October last year after a seemingly normal pregnancy. Abi was delivered and doctors discovered she had a severe gut condition called perforated necrotizing enterocolitis. She is happy and healthy During a three hour operation 10 surgeons worked to removed 17cm of the newborn’s intestine, her abdomen was washed and she had a temporary stoma bag fitted. The family then waited to hear the news. Louise added: ‘When the door opened and one of the surgeons came into the room, we just looked at his face without hearing the words and we knew: she was ok. He was smiling. ‘The NHS is absolutely phenomenal. I’m not sure she would have survived in another country. She truly is our little miracle.’ Source
