Russian doctors save Thumbelina's life

When doctors of a Moscow hospital took the baby out of the mother's womb, the girl was the size of a grown-up person's hand

Moscow doctors worked a miracle: they saved a little baby, which seemed to have no chance to survive. The little girl was born three months ahead of time; the infant weighed a little bit more than 500 grams.

Doctors found out that the tiny little girl enjoys listening to the music. The girl, named as Zhenya, likes to listen to her mother singing, although she prefers synthesized sounds. “We keep buying her music toys, we have several of them at home already,” the girl's mother, Ekaterina Guryeva said.

Ekaterina Guryeva came to Moscow from Sakhalin – the island, which is situated on the opposite side of the country, in Russia's Far East. The woman was six months pregnant. The doctor, who was observing the woman's pregnancy in her hometown, determined that the baby was suffocating in the mother's womb. “The baby's further uterine growth was dangerous; that is why it was decided to take the little baby out by means of Cesarean section and try to save the child,” Ekaterina explains.

When doctors of a Moscow hospital took the baby out of the mother's womb, the girl was the size of a grown-up person's hand. The child was too weak even for a prematurely born baby. Her skin was transparent; the internal organs could not function independently. Doctors originally believed that the baby had no chances to survive, but they continued struggling for the tiny child's life. Doctor Elena Baibarina, the leading professor of the infant-reanimating department of the hospital said: “When such a little baby was born, our doctors started calling her Thumbelina, of course. The doctors were doing their best to save the girl's life. They were talking about Thumbelina all the time, at and off work, in their families and with their friends.”

Thumbelina is almost 40 weeks old now. Specialists say, however, that the tiny girl can do a lot of things that a month-old baby normally does. “She started reacting to sounds, particularly music sounds. When she hears music playing, she opens her eyes and listens to it,” doctor Natalia Yevteyeva said.

The saved life of the little girl, Zhenya Guryeva, became an incredible accomplishment in Russia's pediatrics.  Thumbelina is the first long-awaited child for Ekaterina Guryeva and her husband. The girl is still being kept in the reanimation department of the hospital.

Vesti.Ru photo: Zhenya Guryeva