This week Keio University in Tokyo revealed a baby with a birth weighing just 268 grams has been released home after growing to a weight of 7.14lbs(3,238 grams), becoming the smallest boy in the world to survive their premature birth.
Previously, the record holder was a baby born weighing 274 grams in Germany in 2009. The smallest girl was reportedly born weighing 252 grams, also in Germany, in 2015.
There had been 23 babies worldwide who were prematurely born weighing under 300 grams and survived, out of whom only four were boys.
The boy from Tokyo was born by an emergency C-section in August after doctors determined his life was in danger after he stopped growing at 24 weeks.
He was released from the hospital last Wednesday, two months after his original due date
The survival rate for babies born weighing less than 1,000 grams is about 90 percent in Japan, but that of babies less than 300 grams, especially boys, is less than 1%.
“I want people to know that babies can return home vigorous even if they are born small,” said attending Dr. Takeshi Arimitsu.
