One of the smallest baby born at 25weeks survives in Jupiter hospital after 100 days of battle

The condition of the baby boy born at 25 weeks of pregnancy weighing 550gms was extremely critical because of the extreme prematurity and low birth weight. The 46-year-old mother had given birth to twins through IVF in a private hospital in the city. While unfortunately, one baby did not survive, the second baby was put onto life support for severe breathing difficulty due to the condition called ‘Respiratory distress syndrome’.

The baby was immediately transferred to Jupiter Hospital in an incubator. The baby was kept on life support for the first 11 days and subsequently shifted to different respiratory support called CPAP for 1 month. Special catheters were introduced through the baby’s umbilical cord to give nutrition and monitor baby’s blood pressure. Feeding started with mother’s milk through a 0.5 ml tube and then gradually increased to the desired amount over a period of first eight days. Due to the advanced equipments, trained medical and nursing staff, the baby did not have ventilator related complications.

During the treatment, the baby had an episode of severe infection which was immediately picked up by the full-time doctors at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and was treated aggressively to prevent complications. Baby also required blood transfusions for anemia.

“It is challenging for medical and nursing staff to look after babies born at 25 weeks. Babies born at this gestation have very immature organs like lungs, intestine, brain, skin etc. Most of the complications arise due to immaturity of organs and infection. Because of specialised medical and nursing staff, advanced equipments and parental support we managed to discharge baby without major complications” said Dr. Shrinivas Tambe, Consultant Neonatalogist and Paediatric Intensivist Jupiter Hospital, Pune.

“Another challenge in babies born at this gestation is ‘bleeding in the brain, chronic lung disease and retinopathy of prematurity’. Because of ventilation strategy, amount of oxygen supplied to the baby we were able to prevent these complications. Survival without these complications is extremely rare in babies born at 25 weeks of pregnancy” said Dr. Sachin Admuthe, Paediatrician at Jupiter Hospital.

After the 99 days of battle, the baby has been successfully discharged on the 100th day and weighs 1.670kg now. Baby will be closely monitored for his growth and development. This is third extremely premature baby weighing less than 700gms who has been successfully discharged from Jupiter hospital within last three months “We are very thankful to the doctors and the entire staff of Jupiter Hospital for showing their promptness and care to save my baby” said an extremely emotional (Mother Name). This was probably their last chance to become parents.