Preemie With Paper-Thin Skin Weighs Less Than Chocolate Bar at Birth
Birthing a baby is one of life’s most precious gifts, but it can also be quite scary. For two parents from Rajasthan, India, the birth of their newborn was a bittersweet experience.
At just 28 weeks along, 48-year-old Seeta and Giriraj, 50, birthed a baby girl named Manushi.
Although the birth of their child was exciting, it brought along some challenges.
Throughout her pregnancy, Seeta dealt with high blood pressure. Unfortunately, this caused an “absence of blood flow to the [fetus].”
On June 15, and just 12 weeks before her due date, Seeta went through an emergency C-section. Although the birth of Manushi was a success, she was tiny.
Manushi was born a preemie and unable to breathe properly. In a rush to save her life, doctors transported her to Jivanta Children’s Hospital NICU.
“When the baby was born, we were uncertain of what could happen,” Dr. Janged said of Manushi whose little feet were the size of her dad’s thumbnail.
“She was struggling to breathe, so was immediately put on advanced respiratory support ventilator to expand her tiny, immature lungs.”
Shockingly, Manushi weighed only .88 pounds and stretched 8.6 inches long. She was about the same size as a chocolate bar, according to the Daily Mail.
Manushi’s paper-thin skin, underdeveloped lungs, and weak stomach gave her only a .5 percent chance to live, but her parents remained hopeful.
“She’s just fought and fought and fought against all the odds, but she’s made it,’ they said.
For the first few days of her life, doctors placed her on a parenteral nutrition meal, filled with all the essential vitamins and nutrients she needed to survive.
By the seventh week, Manushi was finally consuming milk.
After a series of blood transfusions, she was eventually able to breathe without a ventilator.
Doctors believed her to be the smallest baby to ever survive in Asia, and by some miracle, Manushi has continued to overcome a lot of potential health problems, including brain damage.
Now, at six months and weighing 5.2 pounds, Manushi has gone home to live out the rest of her life. She may be smaller than most babies her age, but her courage to survive is as big as it gets.
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