Baby born at 23 weeks is thriving: Tiny Lucas given just one-in-four chance of survival... but is now well enough to go home four days before his due date Lucas Georgiou weighed just 1lb 8oz when he was born on April 29 But doctors have called him 'real-life miracle' after he clung to life Parents Tracy and Costa Georgiou are now allowed to take him home By Liz Hull His hand was so tiny that he could barely hold his mother's little finger. Yet somehow premature baby Lucas Georgiou, pictured here at one week old in intensive care, clung to life. He had been born at 23 weeks and weighed just 1lb 8oz. Doctors gave him only a one in four chance of survival. Lucas Georgiou, pictured here with mother Tracy, weighed just 1lb 8oz when he was born at 23 weeks on April 29 Yesterday, however, four months after his birth and four days before his due date, his parents Tracy and Costa Georgiou were allowed to take him home for the first time. "The doctors say Lucas is a real-life miracle," said Mrs Georgiou. We have watched him grow in his incubator, when it should have been happening in my womb. Now I'm ecstatic to be taking him home. Winning the lottery couldn't top how we feel now. Their ordeal began on April 29 when Mrs Georgiou, 31, a carer who has two older children, began bleeding heavily while at her cousin's. She feared history was repeating itself - eight months earlier she had lost a daughter, whom they named Sophia, at 18 weeks because of a rare condition in which the placenta becomes detached from the womb, causing a life-threatening haemorrhage. Mrs Georgiou, of Liverpool, was taken to the city's Women's Hospital where doctors said they needed to deliver her new baby immediately. "I went into shock," she said. My cousin saved mine and Lucas's life by acting quickly to call an ambulance and talking to staff on the phone about how to stem the bleeding while I was drifting in and out of consciousness. Doctors had given him just a one in four chance of survval. Yet somehow premature Lucas , pictured here at one week old in intensive care, clung to life Lucas was delivered by caesarean section, only a week before the legal limit for abortion. Mrs Georgiou lost the equivalent of all the blood in her body and needed repeated transfusions to save her life Mrs Georgiou lost the equivalent of all the blood in her body and needed repeated transfusions to save her life. She spent 24 hours in intensive care with her husband, a 36-year-old chef, by her bedside. He had no idea if his wife or son would survive. After three days, she came round to learn her son had been born and was able to go and see him in his incubator. Now, four months after his birth and four days before his due date, his parents Tracy and Costa Georgiou were allowed to take him home for the first time At six weeks he had an operation to mend an open valve in his heart, then last month he had an eye operation to prevent him going blind. Mrs Georgiou said they knew he might not survive the heart operation, adding: "But he did and it was a turning point. Every hour, every minute, every second counted. Lucas is now a healthy 5lb 3oz and Mrs Georgiou said that after months of looking at him in his incubator, she could not wait to see him in his own cot for the first time.