ONE-year-old Ashtyn Thompson has already had to defy the odds to make it this far in life but once again he has been in hospital, battling illness.

STOWMARKET: One-year-old Ashtyn Thompson has already had to defy the odds to make it this far in life but once again he has been in hospital, battling illness.

After a dramatic helicopter dash, Ashtyn was born at a specialist hospital in Kent at just 26 weeks in October 2008 and was so tiny and unwell that medics feared he would not see his first birthday.

But he fought on and made amazing progress and, with the love and support of his family, turned one last autumn.

However, despite being described as a “little fighter”, he has been very sick since the start of the New Year after contracting swine flu and bronchitis.

He spent more than three weeks in intensive care again, this time at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, but his mother Leah Thompson, 19, said he was making good progress and had now returned home.

Leah, who lives in Stowmarket, said: “He had a cold and we took him to the doctor and they said he had a bit of bronchitis in his chest and gave him antibiotics. But he wasn't getting any better and they kept giving him more antibiotics.

“We took him up there again after Christmas and he saw another doctor and she got him on oxygen and called an ambulance and we were rushed straight to West Suffolk Hospital. They said he had swine flu.

“He was then sent to Addenbrooke's and put on a ventilator. He had lots of blood transfusions and eventually showed signs of getting better.

“After they took the tubes out he was really poorly and had to start trying to breath on his own. He now seems like he's back to his normal self again. His lungs have still got to heal, but they should be better by the summer.”

Leah said she had even faced five agonising days away from Ashtyn after she fell ill with swine flu, but her family had rallied around her and her son.

She added: “All my family have been very supportive. All the nurses said he was really strong and even when he had all the tubes in him he was trying to get up - he's a right little rascal.”

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