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Celebrating the cute, little ‘living miracles’

Al Qasimi Hospital yesterday feted children born in the hospital and their parents while celebrating the low rate of neonatal mortality at the hospital during 2000-2007.

For Bangladeshi mother Shahnaz Rahman, her six-year-old son Tahsin is a living miracle. Born with a birth weight of only 650 grammes prematurely at four months of gestation (28 weeks), doctors had persuaded Shahnaz to ‘let go’ of the child.

“I couldn’t do that, he was my ‘living child’ (she had miscarriages earlier) after nine years of marriage and I was desperate for a baby,” she explained.

“Doctors told me that the child could develop complications later if he survived, but I persisted,” she added.

However, after being kept in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for over two months, palm-sized Tahsin survived only with a slight eye-sight problem. Today, he is a naughty kindergartener.

Likewise, UAE national Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al Ali was born with a birth weight of 1,800 grammes at eight months of pregnancy.

“He was very tiny and doctors said he might not survive, but after being kept in NICU for 10 days, he was fine and was discharged,” says the mother of the one-year-old.

Pakistani Fatima Khan was rushed to the hospital bleeding at 24 weeks of gestation. Despite doctors efforts to delay the birth, Fayyaz was born prematurely with a birth weight of 650 grammes.

“He was in hospital for four months while I visited him twice a day to feed him through a tube,” she says.

Now an eight-year-old, Fayyaz had serious side-effects of being born prematurely. He is slightly shorter.

“Until three years of age, he acquired chest infection very easily, but now he is better and attends school,” she added.

Mortality rate low

Dr Hakam Yaseen, Head of Neonatal Unit in Al Qasimi Hospital said that the hospital’s mortality rate was 3.9 per cent. He said that since 2007, there have been 14 deaths out of 3,539 births in the hospital.

“We are talking about extremely premature babies at 1,000 grammes at birth,” he said, adding that the hospital followed European guidelines on resuscitation of babies at 24 weeks (five and half months or 500 grammes birth weight).

“The rate is low compared to other Arab countries in (2006) as in Yemen it is 37 per cent, Lebanon 20 per cent, Saudi Arabia 12, Bahrain 11 and Oman, Qatar and Kuwait it is between five and six per cent,” said the doctor.

He also explained that the hospital received the most risky pregnant women in which the peak neonatal mortality exists.

Dr Amin Al Amiri, head of the board of directors at the hospital, said that the target was to further reduce the mortality to two per cent.

He also announced details of the upcoming maternity and paediatrics hospital which would be separate from Al Qasimi Hospital.

“The new 200-bed hospital will open in 2009 and will have triple the capacity of beds of Al Qasimi Hospital in the NICU,” he added. At present, Al Qasimi Hospital has eight NICU beds.

• UAE