Ryan Colquhoun, from Glasgow, was born so tiny and weak, his hand only wrapped half-way around his mother Claire Nobile’s fingertip, but was somehow revived.
A miracle premature baby was brought back to life in a sandwich bag after his heart stopped for 40 minutes. Doctors desperately tried “one more time” to revive Ryan Colquhoun after he was born 17 weeks early at 1lb 7oz (just 650 grams).
His devastated mum Claire Nobile, 25, told the Daily Record she feared the worst.
But medics kept him in the plastic bag to keep warm and worked on him for 40 minutes in a resuscitation room at Princess Royal Maternity Hospital in central Glasgow. And, against all odds, he pulled through and is now about to celebrate his first birthday.
Claire, from Glasgow, said: “They never gave up the fight for him. They worked on him for about 40 minutes.”
Ryan, who was born so tiny, is hand only wrapped half-way around his mum’s fingertip, has since survived a collapsed lung, a bleed to the brain, E.coli, 51 days on a ventilator and four blood transfusions. He was also treated for hypothermia and sepsis and needed laser eye surgery at 16 weeks old to treat a rare condition to prevent him from going blind.
But Claire, who has two older children, says he is her “little warrior”. I call him Ryan the Lion – he never gave up fighting. It was one hell of a journey but it was the most rewarding,” the mum-of-three added. They worked a miracle on him. He’s living proof that they can survive this. They were there in minutes and after one push he was out and in the plastic bag. There was no sound and he was whisked away.”
Claire initially thought she miscarried when she started to bleed not long after she found out she was pregnant.
But her tummy continued to grow and at 17 weeks, a scan confirmed she was still carrying her child. Just six weeks later, however, the single mother was admitted to hospital after her waters broke while she was at home with her two young daughters on February 4. She was given steroid injections to boost her unborn baby’s lung development and she expected to go home a few days later.
But Claire said: “I woke up at 1am and I felt like I was bursting for the loo. I jumped up and went to the toilet and something didn’t feel right, so I put my hand down and, lo and behold, there he was. I just held my hand down there thinking, ‘what if he falls’ and waddled out the door to get the nurses. The doctors came and warned me that they were really struggling because he was so tiny. They had the tiniest tube they could get and they were going to try one more time but, if nothing happened, to be prepared. Well, that was me, I just broke down.”
Ryan was so fragile she had to wait another week before she finally got to hold him – and it was a few more days before he opened his eyes.
She said: “It was amazing. He was so small, he fitted in my bra.”
When Ryan was six weeks old, Claire returned home to be with her other two children. But at 5am, she was called to the hospital when doctors feared he was losing his fight.
Claire said: “He was on 100 per cent oxygen, his oxygen levels were dropping, one of his lungs collapsed and they were not sure if he would make it through the night. It was terrifying.”
A few days later blood tests confirmed Ryan had E.coli and he had to be sedated to let his body recover. Despite the odds being stacked against him, Ryan was eventually allowed to go home on June 19 after a marathon 133 days in hospital.
But during a visit to a relative’s home weeks after he got home, he went “blue” and his uncle had to perform CPR until the ambulance arrived to take him back to hospital.
Ryan was so fragile, he only got to wear clothes for the first time at 11 weeks old and got his first bath at 12 weeks.
His mother is now helping to raise thousands of pounds for the hospital to thank medics for saving his life.
Source: mirror
