Doctors at Haryana Hospital give new lease of life to 27-week-old premature baby born weighing 620 gm

Sneha (name changed) was born preterm (birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy) on February 17 and required respiratory and cardiac support at birth due to extremely immature lungs, heart and gut.

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The chances of occurrence of such babies are less than 10 in 1,000 babies with survival rates of 1 in 100 babies, said doctors at Cloudnine Hospital in Panchkula who saved her.

Her mother had a didelphys uterus or double uterus which is a rare condition where a woman develops two uteruses.

A double uterus is a congenital abnormality that you are born with, and each uterus has its own fallopian tube and ovary.

The baby was born prematurely due to rupture of membranes with severe intrauterine growth retardation and her weight at birth was a minimal 620 grams.

She was put on mechanical ventilation within a minute of birth and poor cardiac contractility caused shock in the baby.

The baby was given ventilator support and was provided womb-like care in the incubator till six weeks of age.

The baby girl also had sepsis (infection), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and responded well to treatment.

She was initially given expressed breast milk through tube feeds and once the baby was off oxygen by a month after birth, the baby started accepting feeds orally.

Later, she was weaned off to CPAP (mechanism to support spontaneous breathing) for a few weeks.

"This case was extremely complex. It was traumatic for the parents as this was the first child born after five years. The weight of a baby at birth is a strong indicator of growth of the baby and in this case the baby picked up well," said Saurabh Goel, Consultant Neonatologist and Paediatrician, Cloudnine Hospital, Panchkula, in a statement.

"South Asia has the highest incidence of low birthweight, with one in four newborns weighing less than 2,500 grams. Low-birth weight is due to a variety of reasons, from the mother herself being undernourished to her being ill during her pregnancy and in certain cases it can be genetic," he added.

The baby responded positively to the treatment and got discharged from the hospital weighing 1.6 kg.

At present, the baby is above 1,800 gm and accepting feeds from mother and growing well, said doctors in the statement.

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