A BABY born at just 25 weeks - weighing the same as a pint of milk - is now thriving thanks to a stranger’s life-saving blood donation.

Little Phoenix Teanby was severely premature, arriving just a week over the UK legal abortion date, and didn’t have enough red protein in her blood to survive.

Terrified parents Tori, 27, and Connor Teanby, 29, watched as their little fighter became weaker and weaker - with her skin so transparent they could see her veins.

But Phoenix was given the first of three blood transfusions which saved her life at just seven days old, and photos taken just an hour apart show the profound impact it had.

Their “pinked up princess” fought back, and is now home, happy and healthy after 12 weeks in hospital.

Echo:

Fragile - baby Phoenix was born at just 25 weeks

Tori, a civil servant from Thundersley, said: “My head spun while the doctor had several attempts at cannulating Phoenix - two of which failed due to her tiny veins collapsing.

“I felt sick as the nurses hung up the blood from an unknown, incredible donor who probably will never know that they saved my baby’s life.

“After an hour I peeked inside and was astounded by the colour difference.

“My little miracle had gone from pale and lethargic with veins showing on her stomach, to a pinked up princess. By the time the transfusion was finished she looked and acted like a different baby.”

Tori had issues during the pregnancy, including awful morning sickness and bleeding.

She said: “Then my water broke super early, only a trickle but I wasn’t sure so I popped up to the hospital to double check.

“They swabbed and said the waters had broke so I got blue lighted to a level 3 care hospital.”

Echo:

Proud parents - Tori, 27, and Connor

The pair were rushed to the William Harvey Hospital in Kent, and not long after Tori was having contractions.

Tori added: “Midwives kept telling me it wasn’t labour, my cervix was closed. Connor went home to get us some more clothes as we knew I was being kept in inevitably.

“All of a sudden I felt an urge to push and they rushed in, pressed the emergency buzzer and about 30 people were in the room.”

Baby Phoenix was born on January 25 at just 25 weeks, weighing just 1lb 8oz.

But over the next seven days Phoenix got paler and became more tired and her oxygen requirement went up daily as her haemoglobin levels plummeted.

Medics decided an immediate blood transfusion was the only hope of increasing the level of Phoenix’s haemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells which carries oxygen to the body’s organs and tissues.

Her transfusion took six hours - and Tori and Connor didn’t move from her side. The transfusion had nearly instant results - and Phoenix perked up within an hour. The three transfusions during her 12 weeks in hospital, ultimately saved her life.