Last Friday saw a tiny baby girl born 2 months premature 2
weeks ago in her village. She is her parents first and they are clearly besotted
by her. Being so tiny though, feeding her was difficult and despite her parents’
best efforts she came to us very dehydrated and having difficulty breathing. She
weighed just 1.200kgs. Her outlook did not look good and what little hope there
was quickly faded when she stopped breathing. Quickly starting resuscitation, initially
by basic mouth to mouth and then with a bag and mask, she started to breathe
again and her slow heart rate picked up.
From that moment on, my day, and then much of the weekend,
passed in a blur of giving fluids, antibiotics, monitoring her heart rate,
oxygen levels and wrapping her up in yet more blankets, hats, jumpers and
booties to ward off the chilly 25c nights! Unlike the many complex respiratory
support systems found in UK hospitals, here we have simple oxygen concentrator which
we used to help this little baby. The smallest mask we had completely covered
her face!
By Sunday afternoon the little listless rag-doll that had been
bought in 2 days previously was wriggling around, no longer needing oxygen and
was able to take a few drops of milk by a syringe. Incredible! By Monday she
was drinking all of her required milk so we could stop giving her fluids every
2 hours by the drip in her hand. Yesterday, as I sat with her parents helping them
with feeding their precious little girl they told me they had given her the
name Rebecca. What a privilege!
 |
| Me with Mum and Baby Rebecca |
The second miniature miracle happened Sunday evening. A lady
who had previously already lost 2 babies at birth came into the hospital in
labour needing an emergency caesarean. As quickly as we tried to start the operation
we thought we may already be too late. Her baby was born not breathing with a
very weak pulse. I was meant to be giving the anaesthetic at the time so having
given all the required medicine I ran over and helped a visiting American Doctor
to resuscitate the baby while Dr Andrea continued to operate on the lady and Dr
Mark was called to assist Andrea.
The baby seemed to be making no attempt to breathe but we
just kept on going. Finally her heart rate picked up and then there was some definite,
if very feeble, breathes. In retrospect we realised that the whole resuscitation
was only 20 minutes long, but at the time it felt an eternity as we watched
this baby willing for her to start breathing on her own, knowing that if she didn't
there was nothing more we could do to help her.
.jpg) |
| A proud new Mum with her miracle baby |
Every so often Andrea would call me over to give some more anaesthetic
drug to the lady and then I’d run back over to the baby again to be the second
pair of hands resuscitating her.
And then we heard the most amazing noise ever; a surprisingly
strong cry!!!!! Our whoops of joy and delight joined the baby’s cries to make
the operating room a spontaneous party of celebration!
Although these two little babies are miniature miracles, the
miracles were not miniature!
