Meet baby girl Manushi from Udaipur, Rajasthan. Her birth and survival story are nothing short of miracles.
Born 12 weeks prematurely owing to complications in her mother’s pregnancy, she weighed just 400 grams and measured merely 8.6 inches. Her birth weight was less than even a chocolate bar. She was delivered via emergency cesarean section in June 2017.
There were no signs of breathing immediately after she was born. Her lungs, heart, brain, and kidneys were underdeveloped, and her skin was paper-thin. Her feet were only as long as a thumbnail. The chances of her survival were very slim – in fact, only 0.5 percent. However, her parents did not give up hope.
They shifted their tiny daughter to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Jivanta Children’s Hospital in Udaipur. At the hospital, the doctors began all possible efforts to save her by giving her the required medical assistance and ensuring that she did not catch any infections. The fact that she lost more than her birth weight had put her life at further risk. They put her on respiratory support, blood transfusions, and parenteral nutrition, a process of intravenous feeding.
Manushi soon started showing positive signs. Seven weeks later, her condition improved enough to take milk. Her organs began to develop, and after 4.5 months, she could be fed milk from a spoon. Today, she weighs around 2.4 kg. The doctors’ team surely deserves heartfelt appreciation for saving her life.
After being kept in the NICU for almost seven months, Manushi was recently discharged. God had answered her parents’ prayers. We can imagine the happiness her parents would have experienced after welcoming their daughter into their home for the first time after her birth!
Manushi is a born fighter, and we wish her good health and a long life. And yes, you must have guessed it by now. She has been named after Manushi Chhillar, the Indian beauty who won the 2017 Miss World title. We hope the little one, too, reaches for the stars when she grows up.
