Mystery doctor saved dying baby with 2p rubber gloves in improvised operation after telling parents: 'I've never done this before'

One-month-old Jake Willett was close to death from gut infection

Passing doctor overheard his devastated parents preparing to say goodbye

He made two incisions to drain infection, using gloves to keep wounds open



Thriving Jake now 16 months old, yet parents still don't know who saved him



A passing doctor who overheard grief-stricken parents preparing to say goodbye to their dying son saved the baby's life with a scalpel and a pair of disposable rubber gloves.



Devastated Jodi Baker and Brian Willett were told their month-old son Jake was about to die from an infection after his small intestine burst.



But a doctor attending another baby on the ward came over and offered to carry out an impromput stomach operation - before warning them: 'I've never done this before'.

Do you know the identity of the mystery doctor who saved Jake's life? If so, please call Mail Online 020 3615 1877



So grateful: Brian Willett, Jodi Baker, and their son Jake, who is now 16 months old and thriving

He told Jake's distraught father: 'I'm going to try something on your son - it will either save his life or end things.'

Carpenter Mr Willett, 30, had no time to hesitate and agreed the doctor should try.

The surgeon calmly reached into Jake's incubator, made two tiny cuts in his stomach with a scalpel, and drained the infection, using a glove in each incision to keep the wounds open.

Miss Baker, 28, who had fled from her baby's bedside in tears, returned to the ward to see a 2p blue surgical glove in each incision, letting the infection drain out out of her son's body.



Before the life-saving surgery Jake had been too ill to be transferred from Medway Hospital in Kent to London for specialist treatment.



But the 'miracle' procedure saved him and left him well enough to move to King's College Hospital, London where he underwent a six-hour-long operation.

Little fighter: Jake Willett has overcome a catalogue of health problems

Jake, who is now 16 months old, has made a full recovery and only has to return to hospital for check ups.



And remarkably, his parents still have no idea who the man who saved their baby's life was.



They believe the doctor is a heart surgeon at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, and was visiting heart patients in Kent at the time.



Miss Baker, a dental nurse, from Minster, Kent, said: 'The nurse called us into a room and she said "Jake is not going to survive".



Tiny: Baby Jake weighed only 2lb 4oz when he was born in September 2011 On the road to recovery: Jake's father is now planning to raise funds for the charity that helped the family

'She said we should ask our family to come up to the hospital to say goodbye to Jake and she said she could call the priest for us.



'The nurses were crying too as they had been trying to save Jake. I was so upset I ran out of the room crying and threw up.



'Then Brian came and found me and told me what the doctor had said.



'The doctor had pulled Brian aside and said: "I'm going to try something on your son, it will either save his life or end things there and then."



'The doctor said he had never done the procedure before, but Brian told him to try.

'I did not know what to think when I returned to see Jake with two plastic gloves sticking out of his tummy.

'But I was amazed that it had worked. I am so grateful for that doctor for saving Jake's life.



'Jake is an absolute miracle. He's a really happy boy and now he eats everything and is putting on weight.'

Jake's life was saved with rubber gloves after his father Brian Willett, left, agreed to let a mystery doctor try



Growing toddler: Jake was discharged from hospital last March and doctors say he will make a full recovery

Jake was born two months premature and weighing just 2lb 4oz after an emergency Caesarean in September 2011.



He started gaining weight but at three weeks his stomach started to swell.



Doctors at Medway Hospital told Jake's parents he had a condition affecting some premature infants called Necrotising Enterocolitis where the small intestine tissue becomes inflamed and dies.

They watched helplessly as his stomach got larger and larger and turned a grey-black colour.



On October 20 they were summoned to the hospital at 5am and told by a consultant that Jake had got 95 per cent worse in 24 hours.



His small intestine had burst inside him and they were told to call in other relatives to say goodbye as he was unlikely to survive.



Jake's only hope was to be transferred to King's College Hospital in London for an emergency operation but doctors said he was too weak to survive the journey.



The good Samaritan doctor was treating a baby girl with a heart condition on the same ward when he overheard the grief-stricken parents.



At King's College Hospital surgeons removed 70cm of Jake's intestine.



He stayed in intensive care for next seven months and battled through a catalogue of complications including 17 blood transfusions and several resuscitations.



The baby also contracted MRSA, developed liver failure, enlarged ventricles on the brain, a small hole in his heart, and an infection next to his heart, but still pulled through.



He was finally discharged from hospital in March last year and doctors believe he will make a full recovery.

Jake's father is now planning to do an endurance test to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charity which housed him and Miss Baker in London while their son was in intensive care.