A GRIEVING mother today said she will be forever thankful to hospital staff for the 10 precious weeks she got to spend with her severely premature baby boy.

And in gratitude she is summoning up the courage to take on a skydive on the birthday of her son Kye, who died in her arms at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, five weeks before he was due.

Susanna Spencer, of Coronation Drive, was terrified when she went into labour at nearly 25 weeks and knew that the survival odds for her son, born weighing 1lb 8oz, were desperately low.

Within a couple of hours of his birth, Kye was rushed from Ipswich Hospital to the neonatal intensive care unit at Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge. Miss Spencer was told that if he lasted two weeks, there was a chance he would live.

The 28-year-old said: “He was due at the end of October but born in July. My baby was ready to meet his mummy.

“When he got to 26 weeks, we told ourselves that we were going to be bringing him home.

“He went from strength to strength but in the end he could not cope any more.”

Kye suffered a number of complications throughout his short life, including chronic lung disease, a bleed on the brain and an infection in his bowel.

“We were hoping and praying that his body would create white blood cells to fight infection. I prayed to God to let Kye make the decision,” she said.

Miss Spencer, who is also mum to Blake, nine, and three-year-old Jayden, poignantly described the last few moments with her baby.

She said: “He looked at me with a tear in his eye and I said ‘Mummy knows you want to go.’

“I asked them to switch off the life support machine but I wanted them to keep the ventilator on until he couldn’t breathe for himself anymore. I held him as he took his last breath in my arms.”

Kye died on September 23 after contracting an infection, however Miss Spencer said the medical staff who cared for him couldn’t have done more.

She added: “The whole staff were in tears, we were in tears, the consultant was sobbing her heart out. Even the surgeon who carried out an operation on him couldn’t understand how Kye picked up an infection but we don’t blame the hospital.

“I owe them my life for giving me Kye for that time. They became like my second family. I had 10 precious weeks with my baby boy, and without Addenbrooke’s, I wouldn’t have had that.

“I still wake up in the morning sometimes and cannot believed it happened. It is hard – it is still so raw.”