Covid: Mum holds baby boy's hand for first time after five weeks

• Amrit Gahir reports.

A mother from Walsall has held her baby's hand for the first time after five weeks.

Ellie Wright, 20, contracted coronavirus when she was 30 weeks pregnant.

It left her unable to move and she was rushed to Walsall Manor Hospital.

The 20-year-old had never been to hospital before and her mother Michelle Stankevitch said Ellie looked 'petrified' as the ambulance took her away.

She was taken for an emergency caesarean so she could receive life-saving treatment for the virus.

Baby Leo weighed just four pounds and four ounces when he was born - he was taken to the neonatal unit.

His mother Ellie was put into a coma for three weeks.

When Michelle was allowed to visit her daughter, she said she was covered in tubes but held her hand and told her she needed to survive for her newborn baby.

Both mum and baby are doing well, Leo is at home, healthy and happy.

While Ellie is still in the hospital counting down the days until she can finally hold her son in her arms.

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