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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

How a district hospital saved a 650 gramme baby

-Civil Society

Nalgonda (Telangana): Mamatha arrived at the Nalgonda District Hospital atop the fuel tank of her uncle’s motorcycle. She weighed just 650 grammes. She had been wrapped in a small sheet of cellophane and put in some kind of a folder.

Her mother at that time was fighting for her own life after the premature delivery in the 28th week of her pregnancy. She had high blood pressure and was bleeding.

The doctors at the small private hospital where the delivery had taken place felt they could save the mother, but not the premature baby. In a district town like Nalgonda, a baby weighing just 650 grammes had virtually no chance of survival.

Nevertheless, the baby wasn’t dead either. So, her uncle took her from one hospital to the next, transporting her as best as he could — on the fuel tank of his motorcycle. He was turned away the first time by the Nalgonda District Hospital because rules at government hospitals say babies less than 1 kg, who are very premature, can’t be admitted. But when the uncle returned to the government facility and pleaded for a second time, having done the rounds of private hospitals, it was decided to take the baby in — if for no other reason than to give her a place to die.

That was on 30 December 2015. Six months later, Mamatha (very recently rechristened Rishita by her parents) is a healthy 2.3 kg. She is growing normally and her responses are just the way they should be.

In her dramatic survival is the script of the persistent efforts of the doctors and nurses of the Special Care Newborn Unit (SCNU) of the Nalgonda District Hospital as they went about saving the life of a baby who had been given up as dead even before she was born.
 
Civil Society, July, 2016, please click here to read more.