Blake's first operation moments before his birth at Starship

Doctors were not sure if Blake Mouat would be born alive. He is now a 5-year-old schoolboy and "cool kid".

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The odds stacked against Blake Mouat meant he had the first of many operations before he was even born.

His mother, Stephanie Mouat, was about 32 weeks pregnant with her second child when, in her words, she "blew up like a balloon".

A scan showed her baby had a blockage that had stopped him swallowing, and soon Mrs Mouat found herself flown to Starship.

"We were told he had a form of tumour. And then it became a waiting game as to whether he would even be able to be born alive or not," she said.

Because of the treatment that would be needed immediately, he was born at Starship - a first for the hospital.

Mrs Mouat was put to sleep then doctors operated to bring Blake's head and shoulders out. A tracheotomy was put in, before the umbilical cord was cut.

The first 24 hours were touch and go, Mrs Mouat said. In his first three months Blake had three major operations to remove the tumour, which ran from his nose into his mouth. In the three-and-a-half months she spent at Starship with Blake, Mrs Mouat saw her then-16-month-old Jayden - who was at home in Invercargill with his grandparents - for only nine days.

"I was basically starting to lose the plot, pretty much. So they said, 'Take him home, fatten him up, let him be a kid, let him be a baby.'"

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The Mouats returned to Starship when Blake was nine-months-old for another operation, and 99 per cent of the tumour is now gone. They now fly to Auckland around once a year for check-ups and minor operations, a recent one to help correct Blake's speech.

Now 5 years old, their "little battler" has started at Wallacetown School at the beginning of the year and is loving life.

"He has just got this amazing personality. There is just something about him - he is always happy, he is never not happy. He is such a cool kid."

Mrs Mouat credits her son's survival to Starship. The staff there were like family, she said.

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