DOCTORS have told the parents of a baby born 17 weeks prematurely they hope he will be ready to leave hospital this month.

Tiny Leo Taylor Corkin weighed just 650 grams when he was born at 23 weeks and five days on December 23 last year.

He has needed two operations and suffered from a blood clot, which meant he could have lost some of his toes.

His parents, Kirsty Taylor and Declan Corkin, were told to expect the worst, but he is now a healthy 6lbs 13oz after receiving expert care at Sunderland Royal Hospital.

Miss Taylor, 17, from East Herrington, said: “The doctors cannot give a definite date but they have said it should be a couple of weeks.

“They have said they might take him off the oxygen pump soon and let him breathe on his own.

“It’s been really hard, but we have just had to keep thinking positive.”

Miss Taylor said the problems first arose when she began to feel unwell during the start of her pregnancy.

She said: “I was being very sick and couldn’t eat anything.

“I got a water infection because I couldn’t keep the tablets down.

“Then at 17 weeks I contracted sepsis and the hospital said I could have been dead within two days if I hadn’t been seen to.

“I was put on medication and even given a blood transfusion.”

Miss Taylor recovered, but started to feel unwell again at 23 weeks and went into labour, giving birth after 15 hours.

She said: “I realised I was unwell because I’d gone into labour and the hospital couldn’t do anything to stop Leo coming.

“They were saying that he might not survive and that we should prepare for the worst.

“I was up and walking about, desperate to see him and he was so tiny with a tube down his throat. It was so hard to see him like that.”

Leo was put on a ventilator for 90 days, during which time doctors discovered he had a blood clot.

Miss Taylor said: “When were told he had the blood clot the doctors said they were putting him on injections which they said could kill him.

“There was a blister on one of his toes one day, but then the next day all of his toes and part of his foot were black.

“We were told he could lose some of his toes, which was heartbreaking, but then just a few days later they were pink and back to normal.

“The staff said he was a miracle because that had never happened before.”

Leo has needed two operations, one on a valve in his heart at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital and laser surgery on his eyes after doctors found that they were growing too quickly.

Miss Taylor and Mr Corkin, 22, are now waiting for the day they can bring him home.

She said: “We really didn’t think that we would get this far.”