'Tiniest baby boy' ever sent home leaves Tokyo hospital
A baby boy who was born weighing 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 have been successfully treated.
The baby was born by emergency C-section in August, and was so small he could fit into a pair of cupped hands. The baby 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 abortion limit in Great Britain), the tiny infant spent a total of five months in hospital.
According to Tokyo's Keio University Hospital, his mother was not sure her child would be able to survive: "I can only say I'm happy that he has grown this big because honestly, I wasn't sure he could survive," she said.
Doctor Takeshi Arimitsu, who treated the extraordinary baby, told the BBC 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". The previous record-holder was a boy born in Germany, weighing 274g. The smallest surviving baby girl in that same database was also born in Germany, in 2015, and reportedly weighed 252g.