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Malleswari and Nageshwar knew that it would take everything they had to have a baby after 12 long years of marriage. This year their patience finally bore fruit and they got to embrace their little one, but in an extremely painful way, as she was born at 24 weeks of prematurity, weighing merely 600 grams.
Urgent: It is only with the help of the life-support machine that this baby is even able to survive.
"It made me feel like I was given all the joy that could exist in this world, and then it just slipped out of my hands. All those tubes connected to her little body have not even let me catch a glimpse of my baby's face and admire her as any new mother would. They tried to stabilize her multiple times but without these machines her heart slows down, sending shock waves across her body. Every time the machine beeps, my body freezes with the terrifying thought of losing her. It is better to be childless than seeing your child suffer every second like this." - Malleswari, mother
The restricted blood flow is damaging all the vital organs in her body
Malleswari's baby was born prematurely at just 24 weeks and, since her birth, has been on ventilatory support. A fungal sepsis led to recurring seizures in this little one and is inflicting long-lasting damage to her brain too. Not only her lungs, but her kidneys and heart are also heading towards failure because of restricted blood flow to those organs. It is only with the help of the life-support machine that this baby is even able to breathe currently and survive.
She is so weak that it took her weeks to gain even a few grams of weight
"We haven't held her in our arms even once. Just look at her…moving her even a little bit would cause immense pain to her. We saw her gain 300 grams of weight because of the care she is getting here at the NICU. That has instilled a ray of hope in us that, within a few weeks, our baby will start getting better with support. Her treatment could only be carried out till now because we already sold our home, land and jewellery. But how do we get INR 20 lakhs more in the next few days?" - Nageswar, father
He sold his farm and now does tailoring work to sustain while sitting at the hospital
For Nageshwar, days in the hospital pass by in doctor and pharmacy visits but he still has a family to feed and care for. His wife also had an emergency c-section so she can't walk around much because of the fresh stitches. Earlier, he worked as a farmer, but after his baby's birth he had to sell off his only piece of farm. Now, staying in the hospital, he sews clothes for people and tries to earn Rs.100-150 to feed themselves."It's been 2 months since I left my village in Andhra Pradesh and came to Chennai. I don't know anybody here who could help me with work because they didn't trust me to turn up at work amidst the hospital crisis. So I had to take up tailoring work to be able to fend ourselves and manage my baby's daily medicines. I still haven't paid her ICU bills yet and I don't know for how long they will be able to generously keep my baby here even when my dues are shooting up.I feel terrible for how the 12 years of wait has turned out for our little one."- Nageswar, father
The doctors are trying their best to stabilize the baby but here only with time can she gradually recover and gain her health back. She has also developed pneumonia that commonly happens with staying put on a ventilator for a long time. With a few weeks of ICU care, she will not only be taken off the life-support but her organs will start functioning well too.
The joy of becoming parents has graced this couple after more than a decade long wait.
Please help them save their little baby girl fighting bravely for her life in the NICU.
Identity of the child is protected in adherence to government guidelines.
