Bengaluru: 750g baby born at 28 weeks survives the odds

BENGALURU: Milana weighed 750 grams, probably as heavy as three and a half bars of chocolate or an eight-week-old kitten, when she was born in July last year. She had only reached 28 weeks of gestation.
While in the womb, Milana had shared the placenta with her twin sister — she was the donor and her sister the recipient. “The babies developed acute twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) wherein there was sharing of blood, causing Milana to be anaemic and her sister to have excess red blood cells and increased blood volume,” said Dr Sushanth Shivaswamy, senior consultant, neonatology and paediatrics, at the hospital where the mother and babies were treated.
“Milana had lost all her blood and was paper white when she was born,” recalled Neha Kuduvalli, 34, her mother.She underwent blood transfusion 5-6 times during those two months when she was in the NICU, and needed oxygen support for almost a month and a half. “It was painful for us to watch her. She was already on a lot of tubes. Her haemoglobin would keep dropping and they had to revive her with more blood,” said Neha, an IT firm employee.
Milana has turned on her tummy right now and she maintains her HB level. She is doing well and is quite active, said Neha. There is just one thing that bothers her parents — the baby has a hole in her heart. “It was 2mm when she was born. Considering her weight, it was big. We got an echo done yesterday. She is now 5.5kg and the hole is just 1mm. Doctor says as she grows, the hole might become smaller and insignificant.”
Neha and her husband Prashanth Desai K were heartbroken when the older twin, who weighed 1.1kg at birth, succumbed to health complications after five days. She had developed intracranial pressure (too much blood flow) which led to stage 4 bleeding in her brain, causing her organs to shut down.
Neha had thought the baby would survive. “Doctors said she would be in a vegetative state if she survived. Those five days were like hell. Then her pulse rate started dropping and it was time for her to go. So we went and said our goodbyes to her. She looked very peaceful,” Neha said amid sobs.