The life of a baby boy born prematurely to parents in Mumbai, India was saved after doctors recommended that his impoverished parents keep him in an icebox until he grows stronger.

Fox News is reporting on the case of Mithilesh Chauhan who was born two months premature at Alliance Hospital in Mumbai in October 2013. The infant weighed only three pounds, three ounces and was in need of constant care.

His parents, Aruna and Ramseh Chauhan, could not afford to keep their son in the hospital's intensive care unit and were forced to take him home when the couple ran out of people from whom they could borrow money. They tried to find him a bed at another government-run hospital but the ICU waiting lists were too long.

Finally, a doctor offered the couple a cheap alternative that might be able to keep their baby alive.

"One doctor told us that if we couldn't afford to keep our baby in hospital we should try a Thermocol icebox with holes for ventilation and a 60-watt bulb to provide the right amount of warmth," Aruna Chauhan, 34, told Cover Asia Press. "He advised it was better than nothing and might save our baby. My husband bought the box from a nearby fish market and cut holes in it."

The Chauhans took their son home and placed him in the box.

"It was awful," Aruna said. "We had no idea if it was the right thing to do, but we had to try something. We were terrified if we did nothing he'd die, but we were also aware that what we were doing wasn't exactly safe either. It was a very distressing time."

Mithilesh spent the next five months of his life in the icebox and, with the exception of being severely underweight, survived.

News about the couple's plight eventually won them free care for him at a local hospital where he is now receiving 24-hour medical care.

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