Baby Max Millar is a first cousin to Mary MacKillop five times removed. He is also a miracle baby who survived a critical period in the initial weeks of his life.
Delivered amost two weeks late, Max wasn't breathing at birth and his major organs had been starved of oxygen during the birth, said a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
He was resuscitated and placed on a ventilator in an incubator. But medical staff feared that if he survived, he might have severe brain damage. Eleven days later an MRI brain scan showed there was no damage.
His grandmother, Marion Millar, said: ''I was praying, all my friends were praying, and we believe his life was saved. Max is a miracle baby.''
Max's mother, Rachel, 37, said: ''He is certainly a very lucky baby to be alive. When we were told the brain scan was fine, we were just really surprised - we were told he could well have had a significant disability.''
Max, now 14 months old, had suffered from meconium aspiration syndrome, a leading cause of severe illness and death in newborn babies.
The relationship to Mary MacKillop was unravelled by Ancestry.com.au for The Sun-Herald. A closer relative is unlikely to be found, given that Blessed Mary's seven siblings did not have children.
The nun's grandfather, John MacKillop, is Max's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, said the report.
Ironically, Max's grandmother, Marion Millar, 71 is not a Catholic. She is Baptist, although she worships at a Presbyterian church because she doesn't like the ''happy clappy'' music.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22940
He was resuscitated and placed on a ventilator in an incubator. But medical staff feared that if he survived, he might have severe brain damage. Eleven days later an MRI brain scan showed there was no damage.
His grandmother, Marion Millar, said: ''I was praying, all my friends were praying, and we believe his life was saved. Max is a miracle baby.''
Max's mother, Rachel, 37, said: ''He is certainly a very lucky baby to be alive. When we were told the brain scan was fine, we were just really surprised - we were told he could well have had a significant disability.''
Max, now 14 months old, had suffered from meconium aspiration syndrome, a leading cause of severe illness and death in newborn babies.
The relationship to Mary MacKillop was unravelled by Ancestry.com.au for The Sun-Herald. A closer relative is unlikely to be found, given that Blessed Mary's seven siblings did not have children.
The nun's grandfather, John MacKillop, is Max's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, said the report.
Ironically, Max's grandmother, Marion Millar, 71 is not a Catholic. She is Baptist, although she worships at a Presbyterian church because she doesn't like the ''happy clappy'' music.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22940
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