Gurgaon: A premature baby boy abandoned in a near-lifeless state was revived last month at a hospital in Gurgaon. The infant, weighing just 1.5 kg, was brought in by Sector 29 police with the umbilical cord and placenta still attached.Hospital staff said the newborn was cold to the touch, limp, cyanotic, severely hypothermic, not breathing and showed no detectable heartbeat. Oxygen saturation could not be recorded.A team led by Dr Camelia Nongrum, head of Emergency at Max Super Speciality Hospital and Dr Sachin Jain, senior consultant, Neonatology, began advanced neonatal resuscitation. “When the baby arrived, they had no sign of life. It was an extremely critical situation, and our teams worked relentlessly for nearly 30 minutes to revive him,” Dr Nongrum said.He was then placed on a ventilator and shifted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for continuous monitoring. He remained on ventilator support for the first 48 hours, before being extubated to non-invasive positive pressure ventilation on day three. By day five, he was breathing independently on room air.Doctors gradually started enteral feeding and later transitioned him to paladai feeding while monitoring neurological status and growth. In the NICU, staff affectionately nicknamed him “Baby Max”. “His tiny movements, steady weight gain and determination lifted the entire unit. He became the light of our ward — a little fighter everyone cherished.”By his discharge on March 10, the baby weighed 2.5 kg, was neurologically stable, maintained normal vital signs and breathed naturally.The hospital informed the child welfare committee and the chief medical officer, Gurgaon, of the case and after medical clearance, the infant was handed over to Civil Hospital in presence of police and child welfare authorities for further care and statutory procedures for abandoned children.“When we examined the infant after transfer, it was remarkable to see how stable he was, considering the condition in which he was found. The hospital team’s timely resuscitation and neonatal care made all the difference,” said a doctor at Civil Hospital.
