The most premature baby ever born is celebrating his fourth birthday today, July 5.

Curtis Zy-Keith Means (USA) was born 132 days premature, at a gestational age of 21 weeks 1 day.

He weighed just 420 g (14.8 oz), which is about as much as an American football.Doctors initially said he had less than a 1% chance of survival, but four years on, he’s thriving.

Little Curtis was born to Michelle Butler on 5 July 2020 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital in Alabama, where he spent the first nine months of his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Tragically, his twin sister C’Aysa did not survive.

Curtis was born just over halfway through the standard gestational period for a full-term pregnancy, which is 40 weeks (280 days).

He now weighs 33 lb (14.9 kg) and is a big talker.

Michelle says Curtis loves playing with his toys and watching his favourite cartoon, Mickey Mouse.

The cheeky lad also has a penchant for using his mom’s phone to call people up for a chat.

In a new picture, Curtis is seen proudly posing with his Guinness World Records certificate, and it’s plain to see just how far he’s come compared to the last time we saw him next to his certificate – it was much bigger than him then!

Michelle told us previously of her pregnancy: “Everything was going good. I thought I was going to carry them all the way up until my due date.â€

Brian Sims, a professor of paediatrics at the UAB Division of Neonatology, added: “His birth was a complete shock.

“I was called by my obstetrical colleagues that Curtis’s mom was in the labour and delivery and she was precipitously about to deliver, and they wanted me to go in and talk to her about the poor prognosis of babies being born at 21 weeks and one day.

It was an extremely stressful time for Michelle, who herself was kept in the hospital for four days after the birth.

Curtis needed support to help him breathe and medications for his heart and lungs.

He didn’t come off the ventilator until he was three months old.

He remained on a nasal cannula for oxygen when he returned home.

Mr Sims recalled: “When Curtis was discharged, there was much excitement in the unit.

“Curtis was a special young man and there was something unique about him.â€

He added: “[Michelle] made the first campaign for Curtis to be alive. She was a champion for her baby, she spoke up for her baby and I’m so thankful that we listened to her.â€

Michelle said that Curtis setting the record was a “blessing†and that she’s “very proud†of how far he’s come.