One year ago doctors told new mum Lynda Gomes her newborn son was not expected to survive.

Tiny Joseph had a hole in his heart, very little lung tissue and could not keep down any milk because his stomach had not developed properly.

A year later, Mrs Gomes – who was told she would never have children – celebrated the fact he had been taken off all medication, could breathe unaided and was growing normally.

The one-year-old battled through enormous odds to survive.

Mrs Gomes, 27, a secretary from Croydon, said: “It was like it was not meant to be, there were problems from the start.”

She suffered with false labour pains throughout her pregnancy and on April 27, just four months in, her waters broke.

She said: “We were in a restaurant celebrating my husband’s birthday and my waters just broke.”

The panicked mother-to-be was rushed to hospital although she did not go into full labour.

Doctors at Mayday Hospital in Croydon detected the baby’s heartbeat and decided to monitor the pregnancy for the next few weeks to see how he fared.

However, they warned Mrs Gomes she needed to prepare herself to lose her baby.

She could not bear to find out if she was having a boy or a girl as it would make the loss harder.

For the next five weeks she prayed her baby would survive. “Every time I came into the hospital and heard a steady heartbeat I was reassured.”

On June 13 she went to accident and emergency again suffering from labour pains.

She said: “A nurse decided to check me out. Joseph was on his way – she said she could see the baby’s head.”

Joseph was born a mere hour later, exactly three months early.

Doctors and nurses battled to save his life, resuscitating him and advising his anxious family they should get him baptised incase he did not make it through his first night.

His paediatrician, who is also Mrs Gomes’s boss, told the Croydon Guardian he did not think the tot would survive.

Dr Grant Marais said: “He surprised us all.

“When her waters broke, she lost the fluid which is important for the development of lungs. Joseph’s lungs had not grown at all.

“It is very difficult when there is no lung tissue.”

Mrs Gomes said: “He really is a little miracle. I cannot thank hospital staff enough.

“They were amazing, they worked really hard.

“It was their support that helped me through.”