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Youngest surviving premature baby released from hospital

Youngest surviving premature baby released from hospital

Published: 21 Apr 11 08:45 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110421-34545.html

The youngest surviving premature baby in Europe and possibly the world, was released from a German hospital on Wednesday and sent home with her parents after more than four months in an incubator.

The baby weighed just 460 grams when she born in early November at just 21 weeks and five days, and was not initially expected to survive. The general view of the Association of Neonatology is that babies born before the 22nd week of pregnancy will not live.

Yet the little girl, called Frieda, now weighs in at a healthy 3,500 grams and is being sent home in Fulda near Frankfurt.

Her mother, who has asked not to be identified, experienced problems in the 15th week of the pregnancy and was admitted to hospital to reverse the onset of early labour. But doctors managed to delay the birth by a further ten days, but no more than that.

As soon as the tiny baby was born she was whisked into an incubator and intensively cared for.

“Her life was hanging from a thread, but she fought through,” said Reinald Repp, head doctor at Fulda Hospital.

“There is no indication that she cannot be healthy.”

There are no reports in medical literature of more premature babies having survived, although some who were born physically smaller than Frieda have made it. One little boy was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1987 at the same stage of pregnancy – 21 weeks and five days – and survived.

DAPD/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

09:27 April 21, 2011 by Universalismus
Herzlich Willkommen in der Welt! Schon seit November!
04:46 April 22, 2011 by Gretl
What a little fighter! How she survived with immature lungs is amazing.
11:21 April 22, 2011 by DoubleDTown
What's truly amazing is that the doctors delayed the birth by only 10 days, starting in the 15th week, but the baby was born in the 21st week. That's amazing!

Perhaps the mother was admitted to the hospital with early labor during the 20th week, even though she may have had the first signs of trouble during the 15th week?
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