A tiny baby weighed just 1lb 11oz and was so frail his mum could "see his heart beating through his chest" when he was born at just 24 weeks.
Zalena Bagnall, 41, thought she was simply rundown when she paid a visit to Leighton Hospital in the middle of lockdown in May 2020, but soon found herself being rushed into Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral to give birth two months before her due date.
She said: "I couldn't believe it. I thought they'd mixed me up with another lady in the waiting room. I was so shocked I threw up. They said we had two options - try and save him, or let him go."
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"I begged them to let my husband in because it wasn't a decision I could make on my own - and they did - and we decided we had to do something."
Zalena, who lives in South Cheshire, and her husband Martin spent a week at Arrowe Park before their baby, Sam, was finally born, weighing less than a bag of sugar.
Zalena said: "He fit in the palm of my husband's hand when he was born. His whole body was so weak he couldn't take it. His organs hadn't formed properly. Only two layers of his skin had formed, so I could actually see through him. I could see his heart beating through his chest, his lungs. He was almost translucent.
"His bowel perforated, and within minutes his entire stomach turned black. It was horrendous. They said if we don't send him to Alder Hey, he's going to die.
"There was nothing we could do except stand at his bedside. All you want to do is pick your baby up and cuddle them, but we couldn't even do that because his skin hadn't fully formed. Every touch was like a burn to him."
Sam was taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital, where he underwent a gruelling six hour operation to remove 10cm of dead bowel tissue.
He was then placed in a special incubator, where he remained for more than four months as his tiny body built up the strength he needed to breathe and feed on his own.
Zalena said: "It was during Covid-19, so we had no control. Nobody could come and visit us, so the people at Alder Hey became our family. They laughed with us and cried with us. Those people are just superhuman, the things they did to look after us at such a bad time - I can't describe it.
"There was so much goodwill. If we could harness a little bit of that goodwill and give back to Alder Hey, just think of how many more babies they could save."
The mum of two has now thrown her support behind the hospital's winter campaign, which aims to raise money for an incubator like the one Sam was nursed in, which will be added to its new £20m neonatal unit, due to open in 2024.
She said: "Sam is a little miracle. He still has his issues with being born early; he walks with a zimmerframe, but we have no doubt at some point he will walk independently. Alder Hey have performed a miracle by saving him.
"He's a really happy little boy, really smiley, loves his nursery rhymes and anything to do with singing. Given what he's been through, and continues to go through with doctors appointments and check-ups, I'm just in awe of him.
"I can't begin to say how much we think of Alder Hey. In the time since we've been back at home, we've tried to do as much as we can for them."'
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