Navi Mumbai hospital nurses back premature twins
Their lungs were not fully developed and they weighed 750 and 800 grams each and they survival seemed like a miracle to the doctors. Yet after four months of intensive care provided by the team of doctors and nursing staff, the baby boys have survived the odds
NERUL: When 26-weeks old twins born to Sanvi and Swapnil Mohite at civic-run Mother Child Hospital in Navi Mumbai in February this year, the lungs were not fully developed and they weighed 750 and 800 grams each and they survival seemed like a miracle to the doctors. Yet after four months of intensive care provided by the team of doctors and nursing staff, the baby boys have survived the odds and have been discharged from the hospital.
Scheduled to be born on May 13, the twins were delivered at 10 pm on February 10. The delivery was done amid a series of complications wherein the survival chances of the twins were termed slim.
“There have been numerous cases of pre-term babies getting delivered and undergoing treatment in this hospital to attain full recovery, but in this case, the challenge was the gestation and the weight of the twins. The twins were just 26 weeks old and weighing 750 grams and their lungs were not developed. The prognosis of the babies surviving was very low because none of their organs were mature,” said Medical superintendent of Nerul hospital, Dr Uddhav Khilare.
Terming the delivery to be extreme pre-mature case, the non-maturity of the lungs was a matter of great concern. “Generally lung maturity is attained in the 34th week of gestation, and therefore the twin babies were indeed high risk. Their mother had undergone complications in January itself wherein her cervix was opening up. But on February 10, her contractions begun and by nighttime she had dilated enough for normal birth,” said the on-call gynaecologist, Dr Sumedha Modi.
The ready availability of Surfactant injection with the NMMC hospital was another factor that helped their survival. “To get the lungs to open up within a foetus, it requires Surfactant liquid, a kind of lubricant already present in full term babies. In case of pre-term babies, this liquid is absent and it has to be injected externally and it is expensive, but at our hospital, it is available free of cost and has helped in many cases of pre-term delivery,” said Dr Khilare.
Earlier residing in Wadala, the Mohites shifted to Navi Mumbai owing to the better government health facilities and residential properties. “At Wadala, we were residing in a chawl with no access to private toilet as well. Since the conception of the twins happened after Sanvi underwent medical treatment, we didn’t want to take any chances with regard to her and the kids’ health,” said Swapnil Mohite, the father of the twins.
In January, the family shifted to a 1 BHK flat in sector 6 of Nerul and got Sanvi’s name enlisted for upcoming delivery in the NMMC hospital. “We got married on 13 May,2018. However I failed to conceive and eventually last year underwent a month-long treatment in Ghatkopar. Since it was not feasible for us to continue treatment in a private clinic, we shifted to Navi Mumbai for better health care,” Sanvi Mohite.
The civic run hospital deserves to be commended for taking exceptional care of the twins while in the NICU. Right from the ventilators required to help with the breathing of the twins to providing the expensive injection to open up the lungs everything was done free of cost. “The support extended by the doctors and staff is something we will cherish forever. Besides providing all the services free of cost, the hospital even ensured that discharge of both my sons were done on the same day. Even though my elder son got better few days earlier, his discharge was postponed as the second born needed more time to put on the desired weight,” Swapnil Mohite told HT.
The decision to shift to the city turned to be timely as the complications undergone by both the mother and the twins were termed by the doctors as a rarity. The sound infrastructure of NMMC hospital coupled with the efforts put in by the medical team has enabled the Mohites to bring home their bundle of joy safe and sound.
“The past four months have been an emotional rollercoaster which started with the unexplained pain Sanvi experienced just five months into the pregnancy and inspite of the efforts by the medical staff to prevent the labor, she eventually delivered the twins preterm. From thereon, the medical complications faced by my kids were unnerving. Doctors had asked us to be prepared for the worst but by God’s grace, they crawled their way to recovery,” recalled Swapnil.
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