Medical miracle: Premature twin babies with low birth weight survive against odds

These ultra-micro-preemies are among the smallest twins to ever survive in India. The twins weighed just 475 and 617 gram at the time of birth  

Medical miracle: Premature twin babies with low birth weight survive against odds

A frightening dream transformed to reality for couple Shobha Kunwar and Ganpat Singh, when their twin baby boys, born weighing just 475 grams and 617 grams, fought for four months to survive a stormy course in the neonatal ICU of Jivanta Children’s Hospital, Udaipur.

Born to Shobha Kunwar and Ganpat Singh from Jalore, Rajasthan, the twins were conceived after IVF technique.

“She started premature labour pains at 26 weeks of her pregnancy. As the survival of babies was getting compromised was taken up for emergency caesarean section,” said Neonatologist Dr Sunil Janged.

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Twin babies were born weighing just 475 and 617 grams at birth on January 20. These twins were barely larger than a human hand and were very precious and the only hope for the family.

They required artificial breathing support to regularise their breathing and then quickly transferred to Jivanta neonatal ICU.

Sheltered in a closed incubator and in the midst of tubes, circuits, central lines, probes, dressings, eye pads, etc. The babies were virtually invisible in the initial days.

These twins were managed and looked after at Jivanta Neonatal ICU under precise care of Neonatologist Dr Sunil Janged, Dr Nikhilesh Nain, Dr Kapil Shrimali and trained nursing staff.

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In the beginning babies were struggling to breathe, so they were put on ventilator support and were given surfactant to expand tiny immature lungs.  The babies had infection in blood, heart functions and pumping was poor. Their gut was immature and could not be fed, so babies were put on TPN which means giving all essential nutrients such as protein, carbohydrate by blood.

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Regular screening of heart and brain were performed to rule out any bleeding in brain. Due to brain immaturity baby used to forget to breathe, we call it as apnoea of prematurity. The twins required ventilator support for 70 days and multiple blood transfusions.

“It was long and tough journey for me and my team. At the best of centres, only 10-20% of such babies born this weight survive. Most doctors do not even attempt to save such babies, as the possibility of healthy survival is low. It is with the aid of the latest technology, high end expertise of our NICU team, which has helped us pulled this off” said Dr Sunil Janged, Chief Neonatologist at Jivanta Children Hospital.

The father of the twins, Ganpat Singh said “We are grateful for everything the team Jivanta did for our tiny twins. We had full faith on doctors and our babies have survived even with all troubles where chances of survival were very less.”

Dr Pradeep Suryawanshi, a Senior Neonatologist from Pune added, “This story highlights the fact that ultra-micro preemie born in developing countries not only have a chance , but also the right to survive and live a normal life. Sophisticated neonatal care and teamwork could make that happen. Intact survival of such micro preemies may be a daunting task, but not impossible.”

  • Anurag Sant

    Well Done medical team.. kudos….. Proud that one of my friend is member of this efficient and responsible team.

    Keep it up…. Hope to see more miracles in future from you….