World's tiniest newborn boy leaves hospital in Japan

A baby in Japan has become smallest boy in the world to leave hospital safely after an extremely premature birth.

The newborn was delivered by emergency C-section at just 24 weeks after he reportedly stopped growing in the womb.

Weighing less than the average mango at 268 grams and able to fit into a pair of cupped hands, the boy spent five months in intensive care before being released from Tokyo's Keio University Hospital last week.

According to BBC News, the baby has since grown to a weight of 3.2kg and is now feeding normally.

"I can only say I'm happy that he has grown this big because honestly, I wasn't sure he could survive," the boy's mother said.

Doctor Takeshi Arimitsu, who treated the baby, told BBC News he was the smallest infant boy born (on record) to be discharged from a hospital.

He said he wanted people to know that "there is a possibility that babies will be able to leave the hospital in good health, even though they are born small".

The previous record-holder for tiniest baby boy was held by a baby born in Germany in 2009 weighing 274 grams, while the smallest surviving baby girl was also born in Germany weighing just 252 grams in 2015.

According to the hospital, the survival rate for a typical baby boy born in Japan under 500 grams is just 50 percent.

While in Australia, a study carried out between 2005 and 2010 in Adelaide found that babies born under 500 grams survived at a rate of just 39 percent according to the Herald Sun.

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