A miracle baby boy who made a remarkable recovery after being born the size of a £10 note was beaming today (Thurs) as he started his first day at school.
Little Levi Phipps was born via an emergency caesarian eight weeks prematurely on October 8, 2011, weighing just 2lbs (0.90kg).
The youngster spent the first two months of his life in hospital where he required emergency surgery to fix three holes in his heart and had a feeding tube fitted.
He has also battled numerous seizures and infections, operations to treat a twisted bowel and and has low blood pressure.
But, despite being half the size of other three-year-olds and weighing just 1.4 stone (20Ibs) – Levi took his first unaided steps at Christmas.
And the miracle child – who is still only the size of a 12-month-old baby – has amazed his family and medics by started his life at mainstream school.
He walked through the doors of Samworth Enterprise Academy in Aylestone, Leicester, where he started at pre-school today (Thurs).
His proud mum Katrina Byers, 33, said: “He woke up this morning and the first words out of his mouth were ‘Daddy I get to go to school today! Can you take me?’
“He is excited, he said he is looking forward to playing with his friends – he can’t wait to play with the other children.
“I felt so nervous this morning, and I gave Levi a little extra time in bed so I could prolong it and prepare myself.
“Because of how long he’s spent in hospital, he is used to people and is very sociable so he’s not nervous at all.
“He just keeps telling me ‘I get to play with my friends today’.
“He’s going in for an hour today to get him used to the surroundings, and then his days will be staggered.
“I’ll probably be waiting outside for the whole hour counting down until he’s finished.
“I never thought I would see the day when he was well enough to go to school. I could not be a prouder mum.”
