A Success Story
Among many success stories we would like to mention the one below:
On 20th Ashad 2074, a young lady was rushed to SMH with a complaint of severe lower abdominal pain. After seeing the patient, doctors told her that her labor pain had started before the expected date. Her baby was born preterm at 27 weeks of gestation with a birth weight of 1.16kg. A normal delivery actually happens after 37 weeks of pregnancy and the expected baby weight is generally about 2.5 kg. The baby was shifted to NICU for supportive care. In a developing country like Nepal, it is very difficult to save a baby of such low weight because of the lack of sophisticated instruments for monitoring and medicines to tackle issues in preterm babies. However the doctors at SMH took it as a challenge.
Because the baby was born about two and half months before the expected date, most of the organs in his body had not developed fully to tackle the environment following birth. Therefore the baby was kept in an incubator to maintain temperature as close to his mother’s womb. The lungs of the baby were immature and deficient of a substance called surfactant needed to keep the air within lungs following birth. The bovine surfactant was not available in Bhaktapur and had to be ordered from Kathmandu. Though the medicine is very costly and is associated with a lot of risk during administration, the parents agreed to it and following its administration, the baby had to struggle less to breathe.
Another important issue with the baby was feeding. The baby’s intestine was not developed fully for accepting breast milk so the baby was given a glucose and amino acids supplement intravenously for 3 weeks following birth before he could be given mother’s milk. In the next 3 weeks, the amount of milk given to the baby was increased gradually. NICU patients need a lot of blood withdrawal for monitoring different blood parameters and that could have caused anemia in the baby, for which blood transfusions were done during hospital stay. Luckily the father had the same blood group as the baby and was available for transfusion whenever needed. The baby developed a hospital-acquired infection during hospital stay and needed costly antibiotics for its management. The baby had a lot of issues like jaundice, congenital heart disease, difficulty in getting intravenous line and feeding problems, but still the doctors and the parents kept hope and finally at 42 days of life the baby was able to breathe without supplemental oxygen and had gained to a weight of 1.5 kg. The mother was able to breast feed her baby and was comfortable and confident to take care of the baby. This was not the end of their problem as preterm babies have to be regularly screened for vision, hearing and developmental issues for which they were counselled by doctors.
In spite of all the efforts of the baby’s family to raise treatment funds, the money was insufficient
and it was almost impossible for the family to manage. After consideration of their economic condition, the baby’s parents were provided a heavy discount on the hospital treatment and the baby was discharged.
Because of our efficient paediatric team and their knowledge, hard work and the heart and soul they have put into this baby’s treatment, we were able to save the life of the baby and we are happy for this achievement and thankful to God that the baby is fine and is doing well today.
