LITTLE fighter Khian Johnson should not even have been born for another two weeks.

So when he arrived 16 weeks prematurely, doctors in three hospitals had to battle to keep him alive.

He weighed only 1lb 9oz and was so small he could be held in the palm of a hand. He has been on seven life support machines, had a heart operation, been pumped with antibiotics to fight lung and blood infections and has had five blood transfusions.

His parents, Vicki Bays and Kevan Johnson, never gave up hope, and after 14 weeks, doctors decided he was strong enough to go home.

Ms Bays, from South Shields, South Tyneside, said: "Getting him home last Wednesday for the first time was amazing. We cannot take our eyes off him. Each day was a case of waiting and hoping he would pull through and grow stronger."

It took doctors at a specialist unit at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, where he was born, seven-and-a-half minutes to resuscitate him.

When he was 16 days old, he was transferred to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, where he underwent a heart operation.

Five weeks later he had to take five antibiotics to fight lung and blood infections and five blood transfusions as he struggled to produce red blood cells.

Ms Bays had given birth prematurely after suffering a blood and water infection.

Mr Johnson, an electrician, made the trip to Middlesbrough from South Shields every night after work. After eight weeks in intensive care, Khian was transferred to the special care baby unit at South Tyneside District Hospital. Last week he was allowed home, two weeks before his scheduled birth.

Khian, who weighs 6lbs 5oz, will need extra oxygen until Christmas, and possibly longer, after he was diagnosed with chronic lung disease.