A 15-day-old Nigerian baby, born with improperly
developed food pipe, has successfully undergone surgical correction of
her digestive tract at a hospital in Pune, India, Times of India reported on Wednesday.
The baby showed significant post-operative recovery and was discharged on Tuesday.
Baby Chemeire Ibewuike’s oesophagus was not developed, a condition known as oesophagus atresia.
“It is a rare congenital defect, in which the food
pipe connecting the mouth to the stomach is shortened and closed
(dead-ended) at some point. The condition is called ‘esophageal
atresia’. It affects approximately one in 4,000 live babies as in most
cases babies get aborted because of the severe abnormality,” said
paediatric surgeon Dasmit Singh, who operated upon the baby at Jehangir
hospital on February 5.
“Normally, babies with such condition need to be
operated within hours after birth. Otherwise the child dies. However, in
this case, the child was operated after 15 days of birth. Even then, it
has survived and done well,” Singh said.
The mother was delivered of twin babies in Imo State
on January 22, of which one died at birth. Two days later the parents
were told that the surviving baby had potentially life threatening
complications. The father, himself a doctor, was aware that survival
rates were very low in Nigeria for babies with the defect his daughter
had been born with (undeveloped food pipe).
Through an intermediary, the father contacted Singh, who assured him that the baby can be saved.
The parents reached Pune on February 2.
“Since the baby could not take any oral feed, it was
put on intravenous drip. Seeing the baby’s condition, two airlines
refused to take us in. All the travel management and journey took eight
days. Hence, by the time we reached Pune, 10 days had already passed,”
Chemeire’s mother Victoria told TOI.
“The child was rushed to the neonatal intensive care
unit, where I and her team had to resuscitate the child as she was
highly dehydrated and very sick. All the accumulated secretions were
sucked out, the baby was started on oxygen and then investigated,”
neona- thologist, Anshu Sethi said.
Singh said, “The baby was in no condition to be operated. She would
not have survived the anesthesia and surgery. So, in consultation with
the parents, we postponed surgery till her condition stabilized and
improved.”
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