Current ethical guidelines in the UK on the care of very premature infants do not suggest providing active care for babies born at 22 weeks six days and earlier.

But when they put her on the scales she weighed 1lb, the minimum weight for a baby to be considered viable, so they fought to keep her alive.

It was only when she was safely on a ventilator that doctors discovered a pair of scissors had been accidentally left on the scales and that Maddalena actually only weighed 382g.