Grimsby newborn given 'hours' to live defies odds as he's allowed home

On September 24, Kelly gave birth naturally to Jaxon
-Credit: (Image: SWNS)


A newborn baby, who was given mere "hours" to live due to a rare and deadly condition, has astounded doctors and is now ready to go home.

Kelly Skelton, 35, from Grimsby, was warned at 24 weeks pregnant to prepare for the 'imminent' death of her son Jaxon, as it was believed he wouldn't survive more than 24 hours after birth.

However, following his birth on September 24, medical consultants were left astonished when they found him functioning normally. Now, Kelly and her partner Christopher, 34, are getting ready to bring Jaxon home for the first time.

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Kelly, a driving instructor, said: "We don’t have any answers - Jaxon is writing his own story."

"We’re trying not to get carried away with false hope - but we’re enjoying every day as it comes. I feel like we’re very blessed to have spent 18 days with our baby."

Kelly's pregnancy was "normal" for the first 20 weeks, she says. During a routine scan in July 2024, she was informed by the ultrasound technician that Jaxon was positioned awkwardly, and she’d need to return for further measurements.

Three weeks later, these measurements revealed he had a cleft lip and palate. Kelly recalled: "We were taken to a side room," and "Doctors made a fleeting comment that the cleft could be related to a chromosome disorder."

“But the chances would be slim.”

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The medical team couldn't confirm whether Jaxon had a disorder and referred Kelly for a non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) to find out.

Her blood sample was separated - and her DNA checked against Jaxon's. She was told the test had a 1-in-10,000 chance of coming back positive for a chromosomal disorder.

"Five days later, we got a call back," she added. "They said: ‘Are you sitting down?' I was told my baby had a high risk of developing something called Patau syndrome."

Patau syndrome - also known as trisomy 13 - is a condition that occurs when some or all of the cells in a baby’s body have an extra copy of chromosome 13.

Just two in every 10,000 newborns in the UK are diagnosed with this disorder. Doctors warned Kelly to expect Jaxon to be born without eyes as well as potential issues with his hands, brain, heart, and liver.

Baby Jaxon
Baby Jaxon -Credit:SWNS

Kelly and Christopher were offered a termination late in the pregnancy, but the couple chose to continue. She said: "We’d already bonded with our baby - he’d already kicked and hiccupped."

"We wanted to meet him, and make as many memories as possible."

On September 24, at 7:32 pm, Kelly gave birth naturally to Jaxon, who weighed exactly 6lb.

Her family prepared in the hospital, expecting the newborn might "slip away."

However, Jaxon’s subsequent scans all came back clear; his heart, brain, and liver function appeared normal. "He didn’t fit the picture doctors were describing to me, at all," Kelly said.

"Scans confirmed he had normal, newborn organs - he was born with eyes and his hands were fine."

"At this point, we started questioning how likely it was that his death was going to happen imminently."

"His original prognosis of ‘hours’ stretched to ‘days’ - and now we’re on week three. It’s a blessing - but bizarre. We wondered if we’d even got the diagnosis right," said Kelly, who along with Christopher, is now preparing to bring their son Jaxon back home. The little one will require low-flow oxygen through a nasal cannula, and an NG tube for his feeds.

The couple have even started contemplating purchasing more baby furniture. "It was while we were in the middle of buying things for the baby, that we were told he wouldn’t live for more than a few hours. So, we just stopped. We didn’t expect it to be on the cards for us - so all he’s got, at the moment, is a crib and a baby bath," added Kelly.

The family have been advised to "take each day at a time", but Kelly remains hopeful about having a future with Jaxon. "We’ve got more hope for the future now," she expressed.

"There isn’t any predictability at all in this - but we’re feeling blessed with the days we’ve had with him."