A PREMATURE baby boy is fighting for every precious day of life after he was born 16 weeks early.

Shortly before tiny Ethan Currill was born, doctors warned parents Catherine and Edward Currill he had just a 50 per cent chance of survival.

When he was born he had to be resuscitated immediately because his under-developed lungs were unable to cope. Further scans showed he had a brain bleed and a heart condition which needed surgery to correct.

Both parents were only able to cuddle their baby for the first time on Tuesday.

Mrs Currill, of Homestead Avenue, Warndon, Worcester, was 24 weeks pregnant with her first child when she got back to her parents’ home in Lower Wick, following a shopping trip to Cheltenham in November.

“I was sat down on the sofa looking forward to a doze and my waters broke,” she said.

“We weren’t sure at first but when we got to Worcestershire Royal Hospital it was confirmed.”

The Worcester hospital can only care for premature babies born after 28 weeks, so staff frantically phoned hospitals with the right facilities but the nearest – Birmingham Women’s Hospital – was full.

Only two hospitals had space. One was in Liverpool and the other was Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Wales, 70 miles away, which is where Mrs Currill ended up. On arrival, doctors explained to Mr and Mrs Currill her unborn baby was so young – 24 weeks is the legal abortion limit – and the risk to Ethan’s quality of life was high enough that they had the option to choose not to resuscitate their child after birth.

“We didn’t want to give up hope, we were determined,” Mrs Currill said.

She was given steroid booster jabs on arrival to help her baby’s lungs develop and two days after admission on Monday, November 3, tiny Ethan was born weighing 1lb 14.5oz.

“The first 48 hours are critical so I only got to see him briefly before he was put into an incubator in intensive care,” said Mrs Currill. When she and husband Edward next saw Ethan he was hooked up to the ventilator which was keeping him alive. His body was so small Mr Currill could fit his wedding ring around his son’s arm.

Mrs Currill said: “He looked really red and his skin was translucent, you could see all the veins under the skin.”

Nine days later Mrs Currill was discharged and Ethan was transferred to the Birmingham Women’s Hospital where he has been treated since.

Mrs Currill said the specialist care there was saving her son’s life “every day”, although his condition remains critical.

“He’s heading in the right direction but we don’t want to look too far ahead,” she said.

The couple have offered heartfelt thanks to all the medical staff at Worcester, Newport and Birmingham and are planning a fund-raising effort to buy a life-saving incubator, which cost about £12,000 each.

Baby care: let's improve facilities
Catherine Currill believes Worcester’s hospital should have its own life-saving intensive care neonatal unit to deal with acute premature baby cases such as Ethan’s.

She said: “I had to travel 70 minutes down the road to see my baby.

“Worcester is a modern hospital and a lot of money was spent on it so why haven’t we got a unit?”

John Rostill, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chairman, said Worcestershire Royal had facilities to care for babies born after just 28 weeks but that caring for babies even earlier required highly specilised care.

Mr Rostill said: “Only a few of these national specialist centres with intensive care cots exist.

“What we do say is never say never, there’s no reason to say Worcestershire Royal can’t become one of these centres in the future.”

He said the trust was recruiting more obstetricians and paediatricians to sustain neonatal care in the next two years at both the Worcester hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital.