Jodie Marrin was ecstatic when she learned that she was pregnant with a baby girl. All was going well in her pregnancy until she went into labor early and gave birth to Sussie Bea Patrick at just 22 weeks. At the time, Sussie was as small as a candy bar, and doctors told both Jodie and her partner Lee Patrick to “expect the worst.”

“Everything was fine with mum all the way through,” Lee said of her pregnancy. “It was sepsis – mum contracted it or baby contracted a bug and passed it on to Jodie. She was feeling unwell for about 24 hours. When it got to 11:30pm on June 27 I said we’re going to the hospital, this isn’t right.”

“She was throwing up,” Lee added. “Within 15 minutes she was giving birth in the back of the taxi to the hospital. Within about 15 minutes Sussie literally slit out. I grabbed her and said ‘HELP!’ This was in Arrowe Park in one of the triage wards.”

The couple barely made it to the hospital.

“About 10 minutes after we got to the hospital she gave birth,” Lee said.

Doctors told Jodie and Lee that Sussie likely would not survive, and that if she did, she would have a terrible quality of life.

“They said she wouldn’t be breathing for long and might not look like we expected,” Lee said. “They said they would let us be together as a family. She came out and gave a little whimper so they started working on her. We were told it wasn’t worth [treating her]. They said she wouldn’t have a quality of life but we said ‘look that’s something we will have to deal with but if she’s fighting we have to fight.’ And she’s here now.”

Sussie weighed just one pound and one ounce when she was born, but she fought with all her might at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral. Her family moved into Ronald McDonald House at Arrowe Park for three and a half months as she fought. Sussie became something of a celebrity at the hospital, and her father started calling her “his little miracle baby.”

Five months later, Sussie was strong enough to go home before Christmas!

Lee said that while Sussie is still on oxygen at home, she is “perfect” otherwise. She really is her family’s little Christmas miracle!