Tiniest baby in South Asia survives abdominal surgery

In a rare case, a baby girl weighing just 520 grams has become the tiniest in South Asia to survive after undergoing a major abdominal surgery.

The girl 12-day-old Jhanvi, born to parents Umesh and Madanlal Arya, hailing from Nijampur Magrouni of Madhya Pradesh, was operated upon in Udaipur following progressive distension of her abdomen because of which she was unable to get the milk feed.

The surgery entails a very high mortality ranging between 60% and 80% and the chances of survival were less than 10% in the Udaipur case. She was conceived after 29 years of marriage by in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique. She was born prematurely just at 26 weeks of pregnancy while normal pregnancy duration is 40 weeks.

The Chief Neonatalogist, Dr Sunil Jangid, at Jivanta hospital, where the baby was treated said, "There was progressive distention of her abdomen along with greenish aspirates and we were not able to start feeds. The skin of the abdomen was turning bluish, heartbeats and blood pressure started dropping. Major surgery on such a tiny baby with such poor condition was a very difficult and challenging scenario for our team."

As per the doctors, her postoperative course was like a rollercoaster due to several hurdles, infections and blood transfusions along the way and regular screening of heart and brain was performed to rule out any bleeding in the brain. Jhanvi, who was discharged on Thursday weighs close to 2,110 gm.

On her discharge from the hospital, Jhanvi's mother, Umesh told DH, "After going through so many odds, she is finally is coming home. I am extremely thankful to the team of experts at Hospital who took immense care of her"

According to the experts, she is the smallest baby to survive major abdominal surgery in India and the whole of South Asia. Senior Professor & Head Neonatology, Pune Dr Pradeep Suryawanshi opined, "In the whole world only 4-5 babies weighing less than 500 gms and who underwent major abdominal surgery have survived till date. She is the smallest baby to survive a major abdominal surgery in India and the whole of South Asia. As this baby was weighing only 520 grams, chances of survival were less than 10% in this case".