A premature baby who was born with a hole in her heart and weighed less than an average bag of sugar has beat the odds to celebrate her first birthday.
Born at 26 weeks and weighing just 1lbs 9oz, Amelia Osbourne had a large hole in her heart, lesions on her brain and needed three blood transfusions.
Her organs could be seen through her skin and her heart stopped beating when she was born.
Her mum Louise, 21, gave birth after going into George Elliot Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, for a check-up when she couldn’t feel her baby move anymore.
Amelia spent 94 days in hospital before she was finally allowed home with proud first-time parents Louise and Dan Osbourne, 33.
utter shock, we didn’t even know a baby could be born that early and survive.
‘She was tiny, we could make out her organs through her translucent skin and she had a very large hole in her heart.’
The newborn was even smaller than a toy rabbit that had been bought for her, she said.
Amelia’s heart stopped beating when she was born due to shock and she received CPR before being separated from her mother and taken to a different hospital.
‘I hated it, It was awful not being able to be with her,’ said Louise.
‘My instinct was to discharge myself and run to the other hospital to be with her, as that time was so precious and a mother’s instinct is to be with their baby, but luckily Dan stayed with her until I could make it.’
Doctors at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire prepared Louise for the worst after Amelia caught sepsis.
‘We couldn’t even think into next week, we just needed her to make it,’ said Louise, who fortunately was discharged with her daughter in June.
Louise delivered Amelia through an emergency Cesarean section.
She had suffered a placental abruption, which happens when the placenta separates from the uterus before childbirth.
Dan, rushed back from work in London to be by his partner’s side but got stuck in snow on the motorway and arrived at the hospital two hours after Amelia was born.
Since then Amelia has no long-term health problems and lives a happy life with her family in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
‘We’ve just celebrated her first birthday, something we didn’t think we would be able to do, but we are positive people and always hoped for the best,’ added Louise.
Amelia’s mum and dad have now decided to complete a joint skydive to raise money for the nurses at the hospitals who saved their daughter’s life.
