A newborn baby who weighed only 830 grams won the battle of life after struggling for 56 days and the credit goes to the government hospital in Dholpur that made all the efforts to save the baby. It’s important to note that the weight of an average baby born in India is 2.8 kgs any newborn weighing less than 2.5 kgs is termed as low birth weight (LBW) baby.
It’s very critical for newborns weighing less than 2 kgs to survive as they need utmost care. As this baby in Dholpur had an Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW), it was a challenge for the doctors to save her life. As per the reports, this newborn baby was delivered along with her twin brother by Vidhyawati, a resident of
Dholpur in a private hospital on April 10, 2018. While the boy weighed 1500 grams the girl weighed 830 grams and both were admitted to the ICU. Although the baby boy was discharged after a day, the baby girl was kept in the ICU for 6 days after which she was referred to the tertiary care centre.
The newborn baby weighed only 830 grams (Courtesy: Hindustan Times)
However, there are no tertiary care centres in Dholpur and hence the parents took their baby to the district hospital run by the government. According to Dr. Vijay Singh, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in-charge and senior specialist, the baby girl was suffering from hypothermia, low blood sugar, low calcium level, was severely anemic, and couldn’t even drink milk.
Besides, her lungs, intestines, and liver had not developed fully which further posed a challenge for the doctors. She was kept at the NICU and after 7 days she was fed through a tube and was given two blood transfusions. As the treatment started, she began responding and her weight increased gradually.
However, her mother didn’t have enough milk and hence she was fed through Aanchal Mother’s Milk Bank. After going through the treatment, the baby gained more weight and was discharged from the hospital. She weighed 1750 grams on July 10 and the doctors say that she will gain weight with age. Appreciating the efforts of the unit, Health Secretary Naveen Jain said that such incidents boost the morale of the local staff at the hospital as well as of the officers.
