In rare case, underweight twin babies survive in Rajasthan

Twin baby boys weighing around 475 and 617 grams at birth have survived in Rajasthan. The infants were discharged on Thursday after four months in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

The twins were born to Shobha Kanwar and Ganpat Singh of Jalore through in vitro fertilisation.

"On the 26th week after declaring pregnant, Shobha had labour pains. We did an emergency caesarean section otherwise survival of babies would have been impossible", Dr Shweta Agarwal, who conducted the delivery, told DH. The twins were born on January 20 and their size was larger than a human hand at birth.

For the parents, its a dream come true to return home with their babies. “We had full faith in the doctors and our babies have survived even when the chances of survival were less,” said Shobha.

Moreover, the babies were kept in a ventilator for 70 days and had multiple blood transfusions before they gained weight and became normal.

Dr Sunil Jangid of Jivanta Children’s Hospital, Udaipur, said, "The babies had to struggle to breathe in their initial days and they were tiny. However, they gained strength in the fourth month at our hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit." They weighed 1.7 kg and 1.95 kg at the time of discharge on Thursday.

Doctors at the hospital said that progress in the NICU is satisfactory, including the development and structure of brain and eyes.

As per the doctors, this is a rare case of survival as babies are not mature so they cannot be fed too.

A senior neonatologist from Pune Dr Pradeep Suryawanshi said, “Their survival is a record and has proved that ultra micro-preemie born (baby born before 26 weeks gestation) in developing countries too have a chance to survive and live a normal life. Usually, survival of such micro-preemies is otherwise a daunting task. But their survival has proved that nothing is impossible".