Little boy with fighting spirit continues to inspire

In a heartwarming display of community spirit, more than R24,000 has already been raised in support of baby Eli Theron, a tiny warrior born prematurely at 26 weeks.

Despite the steep road ahead, Eli is facing challenges with incredible courage, proving that even the smallest people can inspire the biggest hope.

Baby Eli defied the odds, born at just 26 weeks on February 8, and has been fighting to survive ever since because his lungs had not fully developed in the womb. 

For the past six weeks, his story has not only inspired people globally, but prompted his parents to want to start a foundation focused on helping families with similar challenges.

Eli has been receiving medical attention at St George’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

On Wednesday last week, because Eli was doing so much better, he was taken off the ventilator and placed on oxygen.

With people from different parts of the world praying for him, Eli has been improving steadily.

Born weighing just 740g, last week the scales tipped to 940g, showing his steady weight gain.

His parents, Jordan, 41, and Helen Theron, 38, had tried for most of their 14 years of marriage to conceive.

The family relocated to Gqeberha from Johannesburg just before the Covid-19 pandemic in November 2019, after Jordan received a call to serve as the associate pastor at the Westway Community Church.

They both love children and desperately wanted to become parents.

Jordan did a lot of work through the church with teenagers, while Helen was a Sunday school teacher.

After struggling to fall pregnant naturally for years, and after receiving an anonymous donation of R20,000 into the church account marked for the couple, Helen went for artificial insemination — and five weeks later discovered she was pregnant.

When Helen was told her blood pressure was dangerously high and her unborn baby in distress, she knew the journey ahead would be difficult.

She was already at risk of pre-eclampsia, and during her 26-week scan the doctor indicated that he was not happy.

On Monday, she recalled the terrifying moment when she was warned that her baby was in “fight-or-flight” mode.

Further scans showed the unborn baby’s development was about two weeks behind, with underdeveloped limbs due to the lack of sufficient blood flow. 

And with Helen’s blood pressure at risk of triggering a stroke, an emergency C-section was performed.

“When Eli was born, he had very skinny little legs because his body was focusing on survival," she said.

“But it was incredible to look at him and think, ‘this is mine, this is really mine’.”

Though she felt she had missed out those first few weeks of Eli’s life, she said she appreciated seeing the little changes to her baby’s body which would normally happen in the womb.

The couple also developed friendships with other parents facing various struggles with their babies in hospital.

“What hurt was when one of the moms lost her baby. That was a shock for us.

"Emotions went out the window. We kept thinking whether we were going to get to bring Eli home.

“We take every visit as another day with him, so we are thankful for all those blessings. We pray for him every time we visit him,” she said.

Eli’s father said that after starting a BackaBuddy fundraising account for Eli, they had been overwhelmed by the support they were receiving locally, nationally and even internationally.

After Eli’s birth, Helen was able to kiss her newborn baby, but after just 10 minutes with him, he had to be taken away by the doctors.

Asked what it felt like to be a father, Jordan said it was weird because he was not with his son, and he had missed important moments like being able to cut Eli’s umbilical cord.

He decided to change his fund to instead request people to donate for Eli as well as people going through similar challenges.

“With the overwhelming support we got, we started thinking of ways to help others, such as providing meals,” Jordan said.

Eli remains in hospital.

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