Recently, we have known the history of the most premature baby, of which there is evidence, which has survived. The news has been published by the medical journal Journal of Pediatrics, and its history could be a ray of hope for all premature babies struggling every day to get ahead.
The little girl came to the world three years ago in a hospital in Texas (United States), with only 21 weeks gestation and 425 grams of weight. After more than 4 months in the ICU, she was discharged.
"We weren't planning to resurrect such a premature baby"
Three years ago, Courtney Stensrud, a 21-week-old pregnant woman, broke waters due to a common infection of the placental membrane called chorioamnionitis and doctors could not prevent the birth, too prematurely, of her daughter.
The neonatologist who attended her at the Methodist Childrens hospital in San Antonio, Texas, was sincere with her and advised him not to start the baby resuscitation maneuvers, given the extremely low chances of survival he had.
But while the doctor was talking, Courtney, who was holding her newborn baby still attached by the umbilical cord, He felt that he should do something for his daughter and begged the doctor to at least try.
"Although I listened to what the doctor told me, I simply felt that I should have hope and faith. I didn't care if I was only 21 weeks old. I asked him: Will you try it? And he said he would do it, and three years later we have our little baby miracle "- Courtney explained to CNN statements.
Dr. Kaashif Ahmad decided to pay attention to the mother and along with the rest of the doctors attending the case, began to resuscitate the baby. This is explained in the report of the Journal of Pediatrics:
"We weren't planning to resurrect such a premature baby, but when the mother asked us to do everything we could for her daughter, despite believing that the baby would not survive, I made the decision to proceed with a vigorous resuscitation."
"We placed the girl under a heater and listened to her heart rate, which we really did not expect to find. We immediately placed a breathing tube and began to give her oxygen, and very quickly her heart rate began to rise."
"The girl was slowly changing color; from blue to pink, and began to move and breathe"
The baby needed neonatal intensive care for 126 days, when she was discharged without major sequelae.
What is the life of this girl like today?
The parents of this great premature have wanted throughout this time to preserve the privacy of their daughter, hence we do not know her name or photographs have been published in the media.
In addition, Courtney barely talks about it and few people in her environment know the true story of her daughter. But he hopes that the publication of this pediatric report can serve as hope for other families in the same situation.
According to the Journal Pediatrics report, the girl, who is now 3 years old, has not developed any hearing, visual impairment or cerebral palsy and is currently attending preschool.
Two years later, tests were carried out to measure child development that assessed their cognitive, motor and language skills, and achieved similar scores to those obtained by 20-month-old children.
"At that time she was 24 months, but considering the weeks she was when she was born, her corrected age would be about 20 months" - explains the report.
His mother says that who does not know that she is premature thinks that she is a totally normal girl. It goes at the same rate as the rest of the children of its age and has not had any problems in class:
"He likes to play with baby dolls, see books, and loves fantasy. He likes to do everything his older brother does" - explains Courtney.
Is your case a ray of hope?
Dr. Kaashif Ahmad points out in the report that Courtney's daughter is an isolated case and that more research is needed on premature births below 22 weeks of gestation:
"We have to be very cautious about the generalization of a good result for a larger population," said Dr. AhmadThe report goes on to say:
"It is very possible that there have been many 21-week-old babies resurrected in other places that had no positive results, and for that reason, we have not heard of them."
"We report this case because after resuscitation the baby got ahead, but it is possible that this is an extraordinary case and that we should not expect the same from other babies. We have to learn more before we can draw conclusions."
According to the WHO, 15 million premature babies are born in the world (before week 37 of gestation) and more and more are those who manage to get ahead, especially the extreme premature ones that reach the world between week 22 and 28.
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Via CNN
In Babies and More Preterm Birth, Premature Babies
