A one-month baby born prematurely on 31st May, in the seventh month of pregnancy, is struggling to survive in Mumbai’s Wadia Hospital. The yet-to-be-named baby girl has been abandoned by her parents because of her physical appearance.
This rare medical condition might not shock you but what the parents of this three-week-old infant did will leave you in utter disbelief. (Photo: Wadia Hospital)
The girl was born in Dhanau, a coastal district 150 km off Mumbai and weighed a little over 800 gms. The average birth weight for a girl is 2.4 kgs in India.
According to a report in The Quint, the parents of the baby girl, Mamata and Ajay Dode, were horrified to look at their newborn and refused to accept her. They were expecting the infant to resemble their first child, a 3-year-old girl. The mother did not even feed her.
The infant’s grandfather, a 50 year old labourer, fed her goat milk for a week, so she survived. When her condition deteriorated, he got the baby to Mumbai’s Wadia Hospital for treatment.
A battery of tests are being done on her to diagnose the exact medical condition, but doctor’s say, this is a very rare chromosomal abnormality which makes her look prematurely old.
“I am thankful to the hospital for giving free medical treatment to my granddaughter. It is really disheartening that even her parents have rejected her, but I will go to any extent to save her. My son and his wife had been expecting a healthy child, but were left in horror when their new baby was born with unusual features.” the reports said quoted Ajay Dhode, baby’s grandfather as saying.
A team of doctors at Mumbai’s Wadia Hospital are treating the girl round-the-clock free of cost. She is being fed breast milk from the Human Milk Bank and her weight has now increased to 910 gms.
The hospital and the grandfather are leaving no stone unturned to see that the girl survives (Photo: Wadia Hospital)
According to Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, of Wadia Hospital, her condition is improving but still critical. She has an extremely low birth weight and growth retardation. There are fusions in some areas of the brain. We are awaiting the results of an MRI and till then treating the infection with antibiotics. She’s born with a rare abnormality and we are still evaluating the exact disease she has.