‘Real life miracle’ baby Lucas Georgiou, born at 23 weeks, goes home

Doctors gave him a 25 per cent chance of survival.

This week, British baby Lucas Georgiou proved those doctors wrong — and left the hospital for the first time since he was born in April.

Little Lucas was born at just 23 weeks and weighed only 1 pound, 8 ounces, about the size of a man's hand.

He was delivered by emergency caesarean after his mother, 31-year-old Tracy Georgiou, developed placental abruption and suffered a life-threatening haemorrhage and shock.

Tracy lost a daughter, named Sophia, at 18 weeks due to the same condition, leading Tracy and her husband Costa to have "mixed feelings" when they learned they were expecting Lucas.

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"We were happy but also frightened — but [the condition] is so rare I didn't think it could happen to me twice," she tells BBC News.

"I tried to be positive about it but I was living on the edge until we got to 18 weeks in case it happened again. After that, I started to enjoy the pregnancy."

On April 29, however, Tracy collapsed. She underwent the emergency delivery at Liverpool Women's Hospital shortly thereafter — and wasn't even aware she had a son until he was three days old.

"Lucas was born, took two breaths and was put straight on a ventilator breathing machine," Costa tells the Mirror. "He was really tiny, just over the size of my hand. I didn't think he was going to survive. It was madness. I didn't sleep at all. I was staying in hospital as long as I could and then going home to the other children."

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"Because he was so premature, he had a heart valve problem which didn't respond to medication. So at six weeks old, he went to Alder Hey for a heart operation," Tracy recalls, noting that they were well aware their son might not survive the surgery.

"But he did and it was a turning point — from that day, he never looked back [and] the doctors say he is a real life miracle."

Lucas left the hospital on August 12, four days before his original due date.

He passed his hearing test, has had sight-saving treatment, and is no longer on a ventilator -- although for now, he still uses oxygen.

"We are amazed by Lucas. He has beaten all the odds to make it through, with very little damage," Dr. Hafis Ibrahim, Lucas’s doctor, tells the Liverpool Daily Post. "He has had the problems associated with prematurity but has overcome them one by one."

"Lucas is unbelievable. It's amazing how strong that little guy is," Tracy says. "He is a real life miracle that I have seen and grow in front of me. I feel blessed to have him."

"Winning the lottery couldn’t top how we feel now," she adds.