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A baby who was born weighing less than 2 pounds finally got to go home last month just shy of 100 days after he was born. Doctors reportedly gave Murphy Russell a 50 percent chance of survival following his premature birth at just 24 weeks gestation, but he has fought back to prove his strength, his mom said.
Murphy, pictured left shortly after his birth and right at home, spent 98 days in the NICU before being discharged. (SWNS)
“Going from no signs at all to giving birth was unbelievable,” Joanne Russell, 33, told SWNS. “It’s difficult to put into words, it was just blind panic.”
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Russell described the difficulty of being in labor for 13 hours to only then see baby Murphy whisked away in a plastic bag before he was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 98 days.
“I did see other babies being brought down and it’s so traumatic,” she told SWNS. “You don’t know what to do. His skin was that sore, I couldn’t touch him. I was just looking at him in the incubator. Even the doctors don’t really know what is going to happen.”
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But last month, Joanne and her partner, Richard, were able to bring Murphy home. He still has breathing assistance due to lung issues and will be monitored for other potential complications due to his premature birth.
Joanne is currently campaigning for a change in paid parental leave so that parents whose babies spend time in the NICU do not have to return to work as quickly as others.
His mom said she had no signs of labor or complications in her pregnancy before his shocking arrival at 24 weeks gestation. (SWNS)
“It’s just a worry that you’re going back soon, you’ve not had that much time to bond,” she told SWNS. “It’s a bit of a countdown. I’m worried about him all the time. It’s not like having a baby at full term and having nine months to enjoy with them.”
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She joins over 300,000 others campaigning for paid leave for parents of premature babies to be extended.
“I think until you go through it themselves it’s hard for anybody to understand — all the time you spend in hospital and not really enjoying having a baby,” she told SWNS.