Premature baby saved by supermarket sandwich bag at hospital in Plymouth

A premature baby was kept alive with the help of a Tesco sandwich bag, her mother has said. Little Pixie Griffiths-Grant weighed just 1.1lb (0.5kg) when she was delivered by emergency Caesarean section at 28 weeks.

Her mother Sharon Grant, 37, was taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth in May, after scans revealed Pixie had stopped growing inside her. "My placenta and umbilical cord weren't feeding her properly", she said. "I was in and out of hospital for eight weeks being scanned constantly to see if she had grown, but she put on about 20g in those eight weeks.

"It was so scary having to get her checked all the time and I had all the doctors telling me all this bad news. It was awful. They wanted to get her to a certain weight before they delivered her, but she wasn't growing to that size."

The first-time mother, who works as a florist in Cornwall, said her blood pressure was so high when she arrived at the hospital that doctors had to put on her favourite singer, Ben Howard to help lower it.

"As soon as she was born, they gave her a little hat and put her straight into the bag to keep her body temperature up," she said. "After that they wrapped her in bubble wrap and got her straight to intensive care. It was so random that they had her in the Tesco bag - it must have just been what the operating theatre had at the time. The bag acted like a greenhouse, bless her".

Pixie is now 7.5lb (3.4kg) and "doing really well", said Grant. "She looks really nice and healthy. It's so lovely to have her home; there's been endless cuddles and lots of people eager to see her. It's amazing."