Baby Born 3 Months Premature Was Wrapped in Sandwich Bag to Keep Her Alive, Now Turns 5

Illustration - Kristina Bessolova/Shutterstock

When a woman’s baby stopped growing inside the womb, doctors had to perform an emergency C-section three months early. The tiny premature newborn, weighing only 1.1 pounds (approx. 499 grams) and struggling to survive, was aided by an ingenious invention. Doctors wrapped her in a supermarket sandwich bag to help keep her warm.

Despite all the odds being against her, the child survived and began developing normally. And come May 11, she will celebrate her fifth birthday.

Sharon Grant, from Goonhavern, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom, was only 20 weeks pregnant when she received devastating news. Her baby had stopped growing inside of her. “My placenta and umbilical cord weren’t feeding her properly,” the woman explained, as The Telegraph reported. She recalled going through weeks of continuous scans as doctors aimed to get her to a certain weight before she delivered.

Sadly, efforts to help the baby grow inside the womb were unsuccessful. In May 2015, Grant had to have a cesarean operation a full three months before her August due date. When Pixie Griffiths-Grant was born at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, she was so frail and tiny that doctors didn’t believe she'd live more than an hour.

That was when they proceeded to use a common supermarket item, which proved to be a lifesaver for the newborn. “There were ten doctors dealing with Pixie and they put her in a sandwich bag straight away to keep her warm,” the mother told the BBC. “The bag acted like a greenhouse, bless her.”

Pixie was rushed to the intensive care unit, and the new mother wasn’t able to even see her for the first few hours. “I couldn’t see her from the angle the incubator was at, but I was told she had her eyes open. In photos she looks so small,” Grant recalled. After she recovered from surgery, the woman said nurses wheeled her in to meet little Pixie for the first time.

While she survived past her first hours, the fight wasn’t over yet. Pixie spent three months in an incubator, and Grant said it took 18 days before she was able to even hold her new baby. “It was amazing that she survived, but it was truly traumatic,” the mother shared.

Five months after birth, little Pixie had finally gained enough weight to be allowed to go home. The mother explained that while they had to go to the hospital several times and that the baby wasn’t out of the woods yet, she couldn’t be happier. “It’s so lovely to have her home; there’s been endless cuddles and lots of people eager to see her. It’s amazing,” she said.

Two years down the line, and despite her rough start at life, Pixie was doing fantastic and embracing the life of a healthy toddler, Plymouth Live reported in 2017. “She’s very chatty, and she loves watching Strictly Come Dancing,” Grant told the local news outlet. “She’s so happy and confident, and she understands things so well. She’s proved so many doctors wrong, they see her now and they can’t believe it.”

While recalling the nightmare she faced after giving birth, the woman described it as a “blur,” yet she is determined to keep telling her daughter’s incredible story, not only to the world but also to little Pixie. “We have photos all over the house—my first cuddle with Pixie, her with her feeding tubes still in—I'll tell her our story as she grows,” she added.