Baby Rishita was given up on by her parents, yet she refused to give up. Born prematurely and weighing only 650 grams, she had to battle not only her imminent death, but also the stigma attached to her sex.
She stood a winner, thanks to the unwavering support from a team of medical professionals from the Nalgonda district hospital, which moved heaven and earth to breathe life into the abandoned child.
Rishita’s parents Ganta Mamatha and Ganta Shankar from Peraka Kondaram village of Nalgonda district lost hopes when the mother had to undergo C-section in 28{+t}{+h}week of her pregnancy owing to hypertension and convulsions. From a private hospital, the baby was brought to Nalgonda district hospital on December 30, which had the facility of a Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) set up with support from UNICEF as part of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
Vanishing act
“We asked the parents to take the baby to Hyderabad, as the guidelines did not permit us to admit infants less than 1.2 kilograms of weight. Being poor, they did not want to waste resources on a girl child, and pleaded with us to admit her,” narrated Damera Yadaiah, the SNCU Nodal Officer of the hospital.
Once the baby was admitted, the parents did a vanishing act and never returned even to enquire. Doctors too had practically given up on the baby, till she began to show positive signs.
“We then decided to provide all the support for the baby’s revival. We began feeding her with Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) as she was not in a position to receive food orally. We dedicated one staff nurse totally for the baby,” Dr. Yadaiah said.
Food and injections had to be summoned from Hyderabad. For one-and-a-half months the baby was kept on TPN, after which the doctors sent for the parents and convinced them to stay at the hospital.
“We needed mother for breast milk, as we began oral feeding. From one millilitre per hour, we gradually increased the feeding to 10 ml per two hours.”
Abnormality in eyes
The struggle was far from over. Twenty-five days later, when the baby was tested for vision, doctors found abnormality in the eyes which could lead to blindness.
That was when Srinivas Murki, consultant neonatologist from city-based Fernandez Hospital intervened and requested the services of retina specialist Subhadra Jalali from L.V. Prasad Eye Institute. For the first time ever, a five-hour laser surgery was performed outside the city in an SNCU. After a second round of surgery in the city, the baby’s eyes are now normal.
Another challenge was that the mother did not lactate enough, and formula milk could not be used. In a rather touching gesture, mothers from the hospital’s maternity ward donated their breast-milk for the baby!
Rishita was officially discharged after 120 days of hospital stay. Yet, unofficially, she is still in hospital’s care as her parents are too poor to afford accommodation. She will be discharged after few more tests.
