This baby girl is being called as ‘our miracle baby’ after she successfully fought for her life for more than 210 days in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at a hospital in Udaipur, where she was born, with a weight of only 400gms, as a pre-term baby in the 28th week of pregnancy. Now she is the smallest baby ever to survive, not in India but also in South Asia. The beautiful angel, for her parents and the medical staff, is miss world and they named her as ‘Manushi’, after the latest miss world from India; Manushi Chhillar.
“The baby, born during the 28th week of pregnancy, had a birth weight of 400 gms, with 16 cm head size and a length of 21.84 cm,” Dr Sunil Janged, Chief Neonatologist at Jivanta told DNA. “She was struggling to breathe, so was immediately put on advanced respiratory support to expand her tiny, immature lungs. She cannot be fed adequately due to the immaturity of the gut,” he added.
For Giriraj (50) and Seeta (44), a couple from Satal Khedi village in Kota, it was a god’s grace showered on them, as Seeta conceived a baby for the first time after 30 years of their marriage. “It was like God heard our prayers, but halfway through her pregnancy, Seeta’s blood pressure was uncontrollable and other medical complications developed, she was taken up for the emergency cesarean section on June 15, 2017,” Girraj told DNA.
One could have lost the hope, but, despite odds, Giriraj and Seeta were all set to fight for their baby. Explaining the complications, Dr Janged said that “we had to keep the baby on total parenteral nutrition, giving all the essential nutrients such as amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, multivitamins and trace elements directly into blood circulation. The biggest challenge was to prevent any infection to the baby. She required multiple blood transfusions during her NICU stay.” After fighting for her life in NICU for almost 210 days, Manushi has gained weight close to 2.4 Kg. Her brain is structurally normal and eyes are also developing normally.
