A baby boy who weighed just 268g (9.45oz) at birth has been released from hospital in Japan, and is believed to be the smallest boy in the world to be sent home healthy.
The baby was born by emergency C-section in August, and was so small he could fit into a pair of cupped hands.
The infant was nurtured in intensive care until he was released last week, two months after his due date.
He had grown to a weight of 3.2kg, and is now feeding normally.
Born at 24 weeks, the tiny boy spent five months in hospital.
“I can only say I’m happy that he has grown this big because honestly, I wasn’t sure he could survive,” the boy’s mother said, according to Tokyo’s Keio University Hospital.
Doctor Takeshi Arimitsu, who treated the extraordinary baby, he was the smallest infant born (on record) to be discharged from a hospital, according to a database of the world’s littlest babies held by the University of Iowa.
He said he wanted to show that “there is a possibility that babies will be able to leave the hospital in good health, even though they are born small”.
