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Published on September 10, 2014
Bangalore : Manipal Hospitals Bangalore part of Manipal Health Enterprises _ India’s 3rd largest healthcare provider in an extremely rare case scripted a miracle by saving a baby’s life who weighed just 470 grams at birth. Meet Aasma Nair (name changed) who weighed remarkably less to be alive, but the persistent medical support by the team of doctors and nurses of Manipal Hospitals Bangalore, old airport road brought alive an amazing survival story cloaked with clinical brilliance under the leadership of Dr. N. Karthik Nagesh – Chairman & HOD of Neonatology and NICUs , Manipal Hospitals and Dr. Praveen Venkatagiri , Consultant Neonatologist , Manipal Hospitals, Bangalore.
The Average healthy newborn’s weight at birth is around 3000 gms. Babies weighing less than 2500 gms are called low birth weight and those born under 1000 gms are called Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW). Around the world, babies born fewer than 500 gms are rare contributing to around 2 % of Low birth weight infants, Aasma being one among them. These small babies succumb to death because of their difficulty in maintaining temperature and lung, gut and brain immaturity. Also they are prone to severe infections. Many of these infants who survive might have disabilities and learning difficulties even if they survive. In India, there are very few reports of survival of infants born under 500 gms weight.
The NICU team at Manipal Hospitals received a call from an outside hospital about the possibility of an IVF conceived baby who was not growing in the womb and was not getting proper blood supply due to the mother’s high blood pressure. The baby was resuscitated at birth at the outside referral hospital by the neonatal team and was transferred to the Manipal Hospitals NICU wing by a specialized transport team.
From that time onwards life took a roller coaster ride for Baby Aasma. Initially she faced a breathing difficulty due to immature lungs and her skin was very fragile leading to great difficulties in maintaining the body temperature to normal. Baby was not able to tolerate the milk thus she was fed through the food pipe and intravenous infusion with high protein and fat solutions for a long time. All these problems were coupled with a great difficulty in securing venous lines to give intravenous nutrition. To complicate things further she also suffered from life threatening infection and low blood sugars.
Against all odds at each juncture, supportive measures were taken and the baby responded well. The positive attitude of team of doctors, nurses and especially parents helped the baby gain weight and reach nearly 1500 gms at the time of discharge.
Patient Deepak (Name changed) now aged 16 years old is a brilliant young adult with dreams to bring about a change. He was a similar ELBW baby born with 650 gram weight and cared for meticulously in Manipal Hospital NICU 16 years back, with similar problems. His case illustration shows importantly that its not only about survival, but also the excellent care received after birth in the NICU is responsible for them growing up to be intelligent and productive adults with no disability.
“The baby’s survival in itself is not short of a miracle. All the doctors from the neonatal care gave the required medical support. Timely decision of the doctors along with the world class technologies also played a key role. Availability of equipment along with doctors and nurses capabilities in looking after these infants often become the decisive factor,” said Dr. Praveen Venkatagiri, Consultant Neonatologist , Manipal Hospital, Bangalore.
“Our hospital’s neonatal ICU has been a major referral unit in India, for the last more than 22 years with exceptional survival of the sickest of babies. This was undoubtedly one of the most challenging cases we have come across. We have one of the largest accumulated experiences of doctors treating more than thousands of sick babies. Babies in our care have survived extremely complicated health conditions and subsequently very well. Our long experience of handling challenging situations successfully highlights the richness of our experience and clinical services” said Dr.N.Karthik Nagesh – Chairman of Neonatology and NICU Manipal Hospitals Enterprises and HOD of Neonatology, Manipal Hospital, and Bangalore.