Unbelievable Survival

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk The baby who survived 50 blood transfusions and a flesh-eating bug When Victoria Simmonds gave birth at only 23 weeks, her son Kaven weighed just over 1lb and doctors put his chances of survival at nil. He was so fragile that his ribs broke with the effort of breathing, and both of his legs fractured as his nappy was changed. As he hung on to life he suffered a flesh-eating bug inside his stomach, and he underwent a gruelling six operations and 50 blood transfusions. But after six months in hospital, Kaven - one the most premature babies ever born in the UK - was finally allowed to go home. And yesterday his mother told of the moment she became convinced he would survive. "When he put his tiny hand on to mine, I knew he was going to be all right," said Miss Simmonds, 25, a civil servant from Cardiff. "He is such a little fighter." "We had him baptised before the operation, as the doctors didn't think he would be coming back. We just had to sit and pray that he would hang on."