A MUM whose son weighed just 2.4lbs after she gave birth at 26 weeks has thanked Colchester General Hospital for saving their lives.

Sharon Villette, 34, of Leafy Grove, Colchester, had an emergency cesarean after suffering a rare complication.

Sharon lost seven pints of blood after the birth of Liam and also had to have an emergency hysterectomy.

Liam has been transferred to a special baby care unit at Addenbrokes Hospital in Cambridge following the birth, 12 days ago.

Sharon hopes to bring Liam home to dad Andrew and daughter Jessica, four, in the next few weeks.

She was admitted to hospital after suffering a series of heavy blood losses.

She said: “Normally it would stop, but this time it just didn’t.

“I started to get lower abdominal pain and was getting scared.

“When I was told they were going to deliver the baby I was a bit upset because my family weren’t there.

“The next thing I knew I was waking up in critical care.”

Doctors had intended to keep Sharon, who was on a ventilator, unconscious for 12 hours.

But she could hear her family speaking to her while she was asleep and woke up after five hours.

Sharon said: “When I woke they had delivered my baby. I’d had an emergency hysterectomy and they had removed a fallopian tube and one ovary.

“I was so ill I couldn’t really think properly.”

Sharon met little Liam for the first time five days later.

She said: “When I first saw him I couldn’t comprehend the size of him, but now he looks normal to me.

“When I look at him, I just think he should still be in my belly. But as long as Liam is here, that’s all that matters.”

Sharon has thanked doctors, nurses and all the staff at Colchester General Hospital for their care.

She said: “I have just had the worst week of my life, but the hospital has been amazing.

“I wanted everyone who works there to know how much me and my family appreciate them. All the staff were just constantly brilliant.

“I had 16 people around me when the contractions started and someone constantly at the end of my bed when I was in critical care.

“The consultants came to explain everything to me and, even now, they are putting me in touch with people to help me understand what has happened. They’re just brilliant.”