Miracle baby born four months prematurely and saved in world-first operation celebrates first birthday

Miracle girl: Parents Louise and David with baby Abi.
Alex Lentati
Ross Lydall @RossLydall23 October 2017

When Abi Peters was born at 23 weeks, she could fit in the palm of her surgeon’s hand and required a life-saving stomach operation with a one-in-10 chance of success. At the weekend, her family celebrated her first birthday.

Today mother Louise Peters, 32, said: “She is a hands-on baby but she is smiling all the time. She is starting to make words, trying to say mama and dadda. She can almost sit up — that is the only part of her development where she is a little bit behind — but she is trying.

“She is always grabbing at things. She is like a magpie, she loves anything shiny. She is constantly grabbing and chewing and laughing. She just smiles all the time if you give her the time of day. She doesn’t like to be left alone.”

Abi’s story emerged in March when the Standard revealed how surgeon Zahid Mukhtar’s team at St George’s hospital in Tooting had achieved a world-first in operating successfully on such a premature child.

Louise with baby Abi, who was born premature at 23 weeks.
Alex Lentati

At the time of the surgery, six days after Abi’s birth, she weighed only 609 grams and doctors believed there was a less than 10 per cent chance of success.

Mr Mukhtar said: “We have operated on lots of tiny ones but she is by far the youngest. Premature babies are often born at 24 or 25 weeks but they are a few weeks older before they need surgery. Abi got a lot of publicity and no one has come forward to say they have done a baby younger.

“In our minds, it sets a benchmark for what is possible. With other children we see and operate on, it affects our judgment to really do all we can to help them.”

There has been only one minor drama, when Abi contracted a vomiting bug and spent 10 days in hospital. Today she weighs 7.5kg, only 500 grams less than the average child her age.

Mr Mukhtar, who saw Abi at his clinic a couple of months ago, said: “What is really positive is that her development is really good. It’s quite controversial, resuscitating and operating on these tiny babies.

David and Louise Peters with their daughter Abiageal at St George's Hospital in Tooting.
Matt Writtle

"There is a question of their long-term outcome — how they may turn out developmentally, whether they have any disabilities. It’s such a hard decision to make. When we do have a baby like Abi who does so incredibly well, it helps us to help more like her.”

​Abi’s mother, her father David and big sister Tara, two, celebrated on Saturday in the run-up to her first birthday this Thursday.

Mrs Peters, a financial analyst at Investec bank, plans to go back to work in December and has kept a diary recording Abi’s fight for life. “I’m going to give her my journal that I wrote day by day when it all happened,” she said. “I will hand that to her and let her read it and then we can talk. She will know what she has put us through one day!”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in