Smallest ever Brit baby boy to survive weighed less than a tin of beans when he was born
Frankie Thompson was born at 24 weeks just before Christmas
TINY Frankie Thompson is the smallest baby boy to survive — weighing less than a tin of baked beans at birth.
He was born at 24 weeks and a day at just 13oz, but suffered none of the complications common in premature babies.
Frankie is now at home with mum Michelle, 36, dad Pete, 42, and eight-year-old step-sister Tilly.
BA flight attendant Michelle said: “He is our little miracle. I’m so proud of him. It is amazing how far he has come with everything against him.
“He is real fighter. All the doctors told me that no baby boy that tiny had ever survived before.”
Michelle’s pregnancy had been developing fine with Frankie due in mid-January. But she went into early labour last September and was taken to St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey for delivery.
She added: “I recall a midwife telling me he was a ‘really poorly baby’. They put him in what looked like a sandwich bag and had to resuscitate him.
“I got to spend 20 minutes with him. I held his little finger and took a picture. I thought it was goodbye.”
Survival chances are 50-50 for a baby born at 24 weeks, but the odds were stacked against Frankie due to his size.
But after three months of treatment, he was strong enough to go home — and did on Boxing Day.
Michelle, of Farnborough, Hants, said: “It was the best Christmas gift ever. He spent 92 days in hospital, but now he is home and thriving.”
Although smaller baby girls have survived in Britain, Dr David Evans of from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said he is unaware of such a tiny boy living.
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Consultant Dr Peter Reynolds, who led the team that cared for Frankie, said: “He was both very premature and also about half the weight he might have been expected to be, his chances of survival were initially slim.
“However he responded very well to intensive care and support, and his progress amazed us all.
“We are all delighted that Frankie has had such a great outcome — he is now the smallest surviving baby we have ever cared for in our neonatal intensive care unit.”