most infants when they emerge from the womb.

But he has a huge reputation for beating the odds.

"He's a very strong baby; he never quits,'' said his mother Mrs. Elaine Foggo, who gave birth to Luke 16 weeks prematurely on December 18.

"He has a mind of his own,'' said Mr. John Foggo, the proud father. "When he got tired of being on the respirator, he just pulled the tubes out and started to breathe on his own.'' The smallest baby to survive in Bermuda, Luke weighed only 561 grams at birth.

That's not much more than a pound of butter.

His tiny eyes were fused shut like a puppy's, his blood vessels showed through his thin skin, and tubes had to be attached to his mouth, nostrils, and belly button.

Doctors at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital gave him only a 15 to 20 percent chance of becoming a normal, healthy child. With their help, his odds have since improved to better than 85 percent.

Yesterday, Luke fed from his mother's breast and went to sleep at home in Hamilton Parish.

Mrs. Foggo, 35, said no single thing accounted for his survival.

"It is the doctors, it is the nurses, it is the help of God, it is his own strength, it is also the love that we have for him,'' she said.

Luke has four brothers and sisters and "I love them all the same,'' she said.

"But when he's this tiny, right now, he gets a lot of the attention from me.'' Luke spent 66 days on a respirator and 12 days at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where an operation was performed.

Full of praise for the staff at KEMH, Mrs. Foggo said she would also like to see the Bermuda hospital equipped so another premature baby is spared such a long journey.

Paediatricians in Bermuda recently proposed a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the hospital. Dr. Steven West, who was in charge of Luke's recovery, was off the Island yesterday and unavailable for comment.

"It feels really good to have him home,'' said Mr. Foggo, a bus operator with the Public Transportation Board.

Mr. Foggo, 55, weighed only 2.5 pounds when he was born prematurely in the days before incubators. Today, he tips the scales at 240.

Will Luke one day be as big as his father? "I think he will,'' Mr. Foggo said.