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Sunday 28 May 2023 Dublin: 12°C
# Intensive care
A tiny baby weighing less than a pound was born this week
Decklan Maize was born four months premature to a Californian couple.

RedRainHD / YouTube

A PREMATURE BABY weighing under one pound is fighting for his life after being born by caesarean section in California.

The baby boy was born on Tuesday after 22 weeks, four months ahead of his due date in September to Carrie and James Maize.

Baby Decklan is just 10 inches long, about the length of his fathers hand, James told a local TV station. He weighs 14 oz, that’s under 400g.

An umbilical cord prolapse occurred during the birth where the umbilical cord came out before the baby. This condition can lead to a baby being deprived of oxygen.

James said that the parents were given a choice whether doctors should attempt to save the baby and not, they chose to do so and Carrie was rushed to an operating theatre to undergo an emergency caesarean.

The parents had last year lost a baby girl prematurely who died after 22 weeks.

Decklan is currently in on a ventilator in at St. Mary Medical Center in the Napa valley.

Read: ‘We had poems ready for his funeral’: Charity calendar celebrates survivor babies >

Read: Younger mothers at higher risk of premature birth >

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