World's smallest baby set to go home in Japan

ryusuke Ryusuke with his parents | AFP

Ryusuke's survival could easily be called a miracle. The smallest baby born in Japan, he weighed as much as an apple 258 grams at birth. Seven months later, he weighs more than 3 kilograms.

Ryusuke Sekiya was born prematurely at 24 weeks and five days. "When he was born, he was so small, and it seemed as if he would break with a touch. I was so worried," his mother Toshiko said.

When he was born on October 1, 2018, he measured 22 centimetres (8.66 inches) tall, and medical staff kept him in a neonatal intensive care unit. Tubes were used to feed him and a cotton swab to apply his mother's milk to his mouth.

The little one has finally been deemed fit by doctors to go home from the Tokyo hospital.

He has to birthed using an emergency C-section as his mother Toshiko suffered from hypertension.