Born tiny and light, at 620 grams, premature baby girl in Panchkula, gets a new lease of life at Cloudnine Hospital

The baby was born on 17^th February 2023 and was discharged after 57 days of life with a birth weight of 1.6 kg or 1600 grams. Baby is doing well.

The Voice of Chandigarh :  A 27-week premature baby girl weighing 620 grams, got a new lease of life after 57 days of successful treatment at Cloudnine Hospital in Panchkula. In a rare case, Pediatricians and neonatologists from Cloudnine Hospital in Panchkula managed to save Sneha (name changed) who was born prematurely, very tiny and lightest but not the weakest on 17^th February 2023 and required respiratory and cardiac support at birth due to extremely immature lungs, heart and gut.  The chances of occurrence of such babies are less than 10 in 1000 babies with survival rates of 1 in 100 babies.

Born to a Panchkula based couple, Snigdha (name changed- 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 due to premature rupture of membranes with severe intra uterine growth retardation and her weight at birth was a minimal 620 grams. Baby was put on mechanical ventilation within a minute of birth and poor cardiac contractility caused shock in baby. The baby was given ventilator support and was provided a womb like care in incubator till 6 weeks of age. She was initially given expressed breast milk through tube feeds and once baby was off oxygen by a month after birth, baby started accepting feeds orally. Later, she was weaned off to CPAP (mechanism to support spontaneous breathing) support for few weeks. She was frail, her breathing feeble as she fought to stay alive against all odds. The doctors supplied parenteral nutrition to support her growth and simultaneously expressed breast milk. The baby responded positively to the treatment and got discharged from the Hospital on 15^th April weighing 1.6 kilos.

Details of Family

• Mothers Name:
• Residence: Panchkula
• Baby: Female baby 
• Birth weight of the baby: 620 grams
• Gestation: 27 weeks 
• Discharge weight: 1.6 kg
• Date of Birth – 17 February 2023
• Date of Admission to the NICU: 17 February 2023
• Date of Discharge: 15^th April 2023

Why is this case rare:

1. The survival rate is low for babies born at this gestational age.
2. As against the expected survival of only 10%, discharging baby without significant comorbidities is a mammoth task.

A team of doctors at Cloudnine Hospital, Panchkula led by Dr. Sorabh Goel, Consultant Neonatologist and Pediatrician along with Dr Sahil Bansal, treating and admitting consultant neonatologist and pediatrician supported with an excellent team of Nurses managed the treatment and care of baby. The baby was sent home in a neurologically intact state even before completing 36 weeks at a weight of 1600 gm. Presently, the baby is above 1800 gm and accepting feeds from mother and growing well.

According to Dr Sahil Bansal, treating and attending consultant Neonatologist and Pediatrician at Cloudnine Hospital, Panchkula says “Survival of babies born extremely premature with a birth weight of less than 700 gms is less than 2 percent in India. This case is unique and rare because the tiniest and the lightest but not the weakest fought all the odds, fighting diseases like Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) which are all life-threatening illness almost exclusively affecting neonates with a mortality rate as high as 50 percent. The infant also had sepsis (infection), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and responded well to treatment to unite with her parents.  Critically ill at birth with a less than one percent chance of survival, the baby girl ‘s story is inspiring and makes us believe everything is possible. With timely interventions and parents’ trust in our team, we were able to save the baby’s life. The infant was discharged after 57 days of NICU stay at a weight of 1.6 kg. On follow-up, the infant had had an excellent growth and weight gain.”

While cases related to management of preterm babies has been reported earlier, the successful result in this case is wholly credited to the hospital’s systematic clinical expertise in Gynecology, pediatrics and fetal medicine and the advanced medical care at Cloudnine Hospital.