World's smallest surviving baby

Amillia Taylor, the world's smallest surviving baby. Doctors in Miami
believe that Amillia Sonja Taylor is the most premature baby on record
to survive.



Amillia Taylor was born on October 24th last year, just twenty-one
weeks and six days after conception. She was delivered by Caesarean
section, barely the length of a ballpoint pen and weighing just
two-hundred-and-eighty-three grams.

A team of doctors at the Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami were at
first doubtful that Amillia could live. Four months later they are
celebrating a remarkable story of survival. Despite respiratory
difficulties, digestive problems and a minor brain haemorrhage, Amillia
is thriving. She now weighs more than one-point-eight kilos.



It's believed that Amillia is the most premature baby on record to have
survived and her case reopens the on-going debate about at what stage a
foetus should be regarded as potentially viable. Clearly Amillia's
story is hugely satisfying for her doctors and of course her parents
but others in the medical community are stressing that hers is anything
but a typical outcome. It is previously unheard of for a baby born at
less than twenty-three weeks' gestation to live.