For up to five days and nights baby Dylan Micallef lay alone in his home after his mother died of a suspected drug overdose.
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But despite being in a critical condition when police found him earlier this week, the eight-month-old has made an amazing recovery.
Baby Dylan's heartbreaking plight came to light on Tuesday when officers forced their way into the home of his mother Renae Micallef.
Once inside the housing commission property at Woonona, police found Renae dead from a suspected drug overdose. According to reports, Dylan was lying underneath his mother, alive but in a critical condition.
Dylan was taken to nearby Wollongong Hospital but was later transferred to Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick where he is continuing his incredible journey back to health.
According to police, the baby boy is now in a stable condition and is expected to make a good recovery.
Neighbours have told of their shock at Renae's death, saying the 36-year-old mother seemed to be getting her life back on track following a motorcycle accident which left her with chronic pain and an addiction to pain killers.
The mother was last seen on Thursday, September 11 - five days before she was found dead.
"She'd come back from a shopping spree with lots of bags, all things for the baby," a neighbour who did not want to be identified told Daily Mail Australia.
"We knew she'd had problems, but she looked really happy. That's the last time we saw her."
Visitors knocked on the door of Renae's home on Thursday afternoon, but after receiving no answer they left a note under the door. Police were then alerted on Tuesday when Renae was still not answering the door and had not responded to the note.
Daily Mail Australia reports Renae also had two daughters, aged 13 and 15, who lived with her mother.
In a tribute on Facebook following Renae's death one of the girls wrote: "RIP to the most beautiful, strongest woman I know, my mother. I never got to tell you I love you."
A local shopkeeper said she bonded with Renae because they both had sons around the same age.
"(She) had a very hard life and bad things in the past, but it was looking good now ... she was a lovely mother," the shopkeeper told Daily Mail Australia.
It is believed Dylan's grandmother has visited him as he recovers in hospital.
essentialbaby.com.au
