He was born in August 2018 by emergency C-section in Tokyo and weighed 268 grams. Doctors at Keio University Hospital say he could fit in an adult’s hand.
His mother, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she wasn’t sure he would survive. The statistics weren’t reassuring either: in Japan, 90% of newborns weighing less than 1 kilo survive, but when they weigh less than 300 grams, that probability falls to below 50%. Even so, the little boy spent five months in neonatal intensive care.
He was discharged on February 20, 2019. He weighed 3.238 grams, about 12 times his birth weight, and was feeding normally. According to the university, he is the world’s smallest male infant to survive premature birth; the previous record was held by a German baby born in 2009 weighing 274 grams.
For Dr. Takeshi Arimitsu, the doctor in charge, the case was extremely high-risk and shows that a very small baby can leave the hospital healthy.