Can Yiğit Işık Holds On To Life With Birth Weight of 460 Grams!

Can Yiğit Işık, who was born premature with birth weight of 460 grams, recovered health following an intense treatment. This small baby, who is a hero of a success story, rejoined the family.

High-risk Pregnancy and Perinatologist Prof. Ahmet Semih Tuğrul, M.D., and Fatma Çakmak Çelik, M.D., from Neonatology Intensive Care Unit supported both Yiğit Can Işık and the family in his history of holding onto the life and helped him recover the health following an intense treatment.

Doctor Çelik tells potential problems that premature babies can face and the history of little Yiğit: Premature baby implies a baby who is given birth at 37 weeks of pregnancy. Little babies needs to spend a part of the intrauterine life in the outer world. Recent technology enables us help premature babies continue the growth by offering an environment that resembles the mother’s womb very closely. Premature babies account for 10% of all births. This figure means 150 to 155 thousand babies per year. If the premature birth can be predicted, hospitals with intensive care units should be preferred. Survival rates of these sensitive babies increased over years. A great attention is required that should be maintained from the birth to the discharge of the baby. These are high-risk babies and the chance of survival is not very high. The weight of birth is usually below 750 g. Baby Can Yiğit is one of them.

When Can was born, he was supported by respiratory device as the lung was underdeveloped. Supportive respiratory therapy is maintained approximately for one month. Food-intolerance intervals are experienced various infections are faced throughout the hospital stay. However, he could cope with all these problems with our support. The bond between the mother and the baby was reinforced by kangaroo care. He was discharged 95 days after his birth. The mother is educated on home care and nutrition before the baby is discharged. Moreover, the mother is informed about the means for urgent interventions. Body weight of Can Yiğit Işık increased to 2 thousand 100 grams from the birth weight of 460 grams, and the baby with healthy status is handed to the family at the end of 95 days. This was the happiest moment for us. “Retinopathy of Premature”, a condition characterized with abnormal development of blood vessels, requires close monitoring in premature babies. Can Yiğit is supervised also in this regard throughout his stay in our hospital. No retinopathy occurred that would, otherwise, require treatment. However, drug injection into the eyes was required for the retinopathy, after he was discharged. Issues that require supervision are not only eyes, but also the hearing and the neurological development.

Premature babies are frail’

Maternal chronic disease, such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension, infections, and structural disorders can cause premature birth by influencing the baby. They need to hold onto the life, although lungs and other organs are underdeveloped. Premature babies are very frail; therefore, I recommended the families that high-risk babies are cared in healthcare facilities, wherein a neonatologist work, because many post-natal complications are likely. Premature babies can suffer from respiratory distress due to insufficient lung capacity, intracranial hemorrhage due to sensitive vessels, nutritional problems, infections due to weak immune system and hearing and eyesight problems. Therefore, all interventions are utmost important, starting at the moment of the birth.