| Thursday, December 23, 2004 |
| BABIES BORN AS BIG AS CELL FONS |
(abstracted from CHICAGOSUNTIMES/ Health reporter/ Jim Ritter)
metro@suntimes.com
SMALLEST BABY BORN HERE: 8.6 OUNCES
Twins delivered near 26 weeks have good chance of
normal life.
No baby as tiny as 8.6 ounces had ever survived
before Rumaisa Rahman was born Sept. 18.
Although no bigger than a cell phone, Rumaisa still
had some things in her favor, doctors at Loyola University
Medical Center explained Tuesday as they introduced her to the media.
Rumaisa spent nearly 26 weeks in the womb before she was
delivered by Caesarean section, along with her twin sister.
That's three weeks longer than the minimum needed to sruvive.
"It's how long you've been in the oven that's important,
not how small you are," said neonatologist Dr. Jonathan Muraskas.
Rumaisa was remarkably free of infections, collasped lungs,
pneumonia or other serious complications common in preemies.
And, she was a girl. Of the world's 20 smallest surviving babies,
18 are female.
"Boys are the weaker sex," Muraskas said, "Girls do better
developmentally".
While it's too early to know for wure, Rumaisa and her sister
"have a great chance of being normal." says Muraskas.
Rumaisa broke the record held by another Loyola preemie,
Madeline Mann, who weighed 9.9 ounces when she was born in 1989.
Madeline now is an honor student at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates.
Cost for preemies is extraordinarily expensive. Loyola's neonatal
intensive care unti costs about $5,000 per day. At the rate,
the bill for Rumaisa and Hiba would total around $500,000.
Medicaid is paying the bill, a hospital spokesman said.
The girls 23 year old mother, Mahanajeen Shaik, was born in
India and became a U.s. citizen after moving in the states in 1996.
Her husband is a customer service representative who moved in the
states after they married.
The girls are put on a breathing machines, and placed in
incubators that kept them at 98.7 degrees.
Rumaisa was fed through an IV line and later a tube in her nose.
She underwent laser surgery to fix a vision problem common in
preemies. Her head is normal and there's been no bleeding in
the brain, a commom complication that increases the risk of
cerebral palsy.
The grils are taking milk with a bottle and steadily gaining
weight and soon will go off supplemental oxygen.
SMALL WONDERS
THE WORLD'S TINIEST SURVIVING BABIES
** Rumaisa Rahman, born in 2004 at Loyola University Medical Center
in Maywood, Ill. 8.6 ounces.
** Madeline Mann, born in 1989 at Loyola, 9.9 ounces.
** Girl born in South Shields, Britain, in 1938, 10 ounces.
** Girl born in Florence, Italy in 2002, 10.1 ounces.
** Girl born in Tokyo in 19991, 10.2 ounces
(SOURCE: Children's Hospital of Iowa) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 4:18 AM |
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Name: infraternam meam
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nasan ang pics.