'World's smallest baby at birth' home after 13 months in hospital

Agencies | Singapore

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

After 13 months of intensive treatment, an infant believed to be the tiniest in the world at birth has been released from a Singaporean hospital.

Kwek Yu Xuan weighed just 212 grams - about the weight of an apple - when she was born on June 9 last year at Singapore's National University Hospital (NUH).

She was delivered at just 25 weeks, reports BBC, making her four months premature. At birth, the baby weighed only 212 grams or 7.47 ounces - about the weight of an apple - and measured just 24 cm in length.

The National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore where she was born had deemed her chances of survival as "limited".

Yu Xuan was hospitalised for a long period of time and had to depend on various machines to survive. Her parents had raised $270,601 through a crowdfunding campaign to pay for her long hospital stay.

The baby was delivered through emergency C-section after her mother was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a condition marked by dangerously high blood pressure that can harm and even kill the mother and baby.

The previous record-holder for the world's tiniest babies before Yu Xuan was a US baby girl born in 2018 who weighed 245g.

Even though she still has chronic lung disease and will need assistance at home with breathing, doctors say she is doing well and has made good progress, and her condition has now improved enough to allow her discharge.

Now, with a weight of 6.3kg (14 pounds), according to the doctors, Yu Xuan is much healthier.