The parents of an amazing tot born three months early and weighing less than a bag of sugar have paid tribute to their “little fighter”.
With a birth weight of only 1lb 11oz Callum Alexander David Evatt spent 71 days fighting to survive in the special care baby unit (SCBU) at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
First-time parents Linzy McCreadie, 29, and Chris Evatt, 33, of Strathmiglo, have told The Courier of their delight on finally being able to take their little boy home.
Now weighing a healthy 6lb 2oz, Callum even made it back home before his due date, which was on Friday.
Linzy went to work the day she gave birth to Callum. She was later sitting in the hospital waiting room to get checked out when things took a bad turn.
She said: “I went in because I had been having pains for three days but I didn’t realise I was in labour. The next thing I knew my waters broke and his foot was out.
“They rushed me in for an emergency section. They told me I could have given birth naturally but it would have been risky for him and I wanted him to have the best chance.”
A trained nurse, Linzy knew how serious it was for her son to have arrived so early.
Chris asked a member of staff what their son’s chance of surviving was and was told it was too early to say.
Linzy said: “I didn’t get to see him until the following morning but a nurse told me he was very small. He weighed less than a bag of sugar and was the same size as his teddy. He looked purple because his skin was still so thin.
“The first 24 hours were horrendous. I just sat by his incubator. It was day three before I got to hold him for the first time.
“He spent 40 hours being ventilated and quickly came off that before he went on high flow oxygen on and off for eight weeks.”
Linzy was kept in hospital for four days after her caesarean but then had to leave her son overnight, which she said was very difficult for her.
“I was there from 9am to 8pm,” she said. “The nurses told me ‘you need to go home and rest’ but it was hard to leave him.
“One night I stayed all night because he didn’t seem right. I spent three months at his bedside. I didn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Although Linzy and Chris said Callum’s journey was “relatively stable” and he received only two blood transfusions, he did have a blip at three weeks when he was working hard to breathe.
He has made good progress despite his difficult start but he is likely to be left with a mild form of lung disease for the rest of his life.
Linzy said: “I don’t consider him to be three months old. He is like a new-born baby and the day I got him home I counted that as day one.
“Words can’t describe how pleased I am to be home and how thankful I am for the care he got. I’m sure that’s why he is as strong as he is now.”
Chris added: “He’s a little fighter but if it wasn’t for the hospital staff he wouldn’t be here.”