Ahmedabad: While the year 2020 brought the curse of coronavirus pandemic to the world, for Jitendra and Ranu Anjane, a couple from a village near Indore in Madhya Pradesh, who have been eking out a living working as masons, the year presented a different type of problem.
While people all over the world were worried about saving their lives, this poor couple was worried about saving the life of their new-born baby.
Ranu came to know about her pregnancy in April 2020 while she was suffering from a severe liver ailment.
It was after two months of her pregnancy that Ranu was diagnosed with a severe liver problem. She was worried more about the child she was carrying in her womb than about her own illness.
The couple consulted doctors in Indore but to no avail. The couple had lost all hopes when a well-wisher advised them to go to the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.
Following the advice, the couple visited the hospital to try their luck.
Ranu's health improved after a week’s treatment but after six and a half months of her pregnancy, her health deteriorated again.
Following this, the couple again went to the civil hospital for the check-up. This time the problem of the survival of her 400 gm infant became most crucial.
The yet to be born child too faced great risk because of the illness of the mother.
According to Dr Bela Shah of the gynaecology department of the civil hospital, there was very little chance of the survival of a premature baby.
"Continuing with the pregnancy would have been a great risk to the lives of both the mother and the infant. Finally, in October, Ranu gave birth to a baby girl weighing only 436 grams," she said.
Assistant professor of paediatric department Dr Sonu Akhani said the baby had been fighting against death from the moment she started breathing.
Those in the operation theatre believed that the infant would not survive for more than a few minutes. However, the almighty had written a different fate for the newborn, he said.
Dr Akhani further said that the infant had weak lungs and heart. It was a challenge to maintain all the parameters for a normal body.
"The veins of the infant were as thin as a line drawn by pencil on a piece of paper. To find a safe vein to administer intra-veinous fluid was like walking on a razor’s edge. Yet, our doctors continued their efforts and finally the baby survived," he added.
The baby was immediately shifted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the hospital and kept under the care of doctors.
She was kept in the NICU for almost 54 days and was discharged after weighing 930 grams.
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