Dr Phuket Tantiwit, 40, told Kom Chad Luek, that Amillia Sonja Taylor had a good chance of developing normally after spending the first four months of her life in an incubator at Baptist Children's Hospital.

Amillia was delivered last October 24 after only 22 weeks in the womb.

In a telephone interview, Dr Phuket recalled his surprise at finding Amillia alive when the team performed a caesarean section after her mother went into premature labour.

"She was motionless and her heart rate was lower than normal. Her skin was so thin and clear that all her veins could be seen," he said.

When she opened her eyes a few days after she was delivered members of the medical team felt there was a chance she would survive.

"We all feel that she's a fighter and can possibly make it," the doctor said.

Amillia is the first child to survive after only 21 weeks and six days in her mother's womb.

She was only 24 centimetres long and weighed a mere 284 grams when she was delivered.

She now weighs 1.8 kilograms and is about 39cm long.

Her growth rate will be slower than that of other children but by the time she is two she will catch up with them, the doctor, a neonatologist, said.

Phuket graduated from Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine with First Class Honours in 1988, before continuing his studies in the US for 12 years.

He worked at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok for four years before returning to the US with his wife Thipthida.