His name is Olivia. Was born on March 18 this year in the American Sanatorium of Uruguay. She weighed just 330 grams, was 27 weeks pregnant, measured the same as a thermometer and thus became the smallest baby in the history of the country and the one with the lowest weight among Latin American records.
Today, more than three months after that day, he continues to make history.
And it is that with the days his body becomes stronger, his skin, his lungs, all his organs. He grew thanks to his mother’s milk, Miriam, who passed him food drop by drop. Also for the love of his father, Joséwho always spoke to her about the other side of the plastic of the incubator, where she was hospitalized since her birth.
“Hi love! You are already with us”their parents repeated over and over again, according to what was published by the newspaper The Observer. The head of the pediatric CTI of the American SanitariumEnrique Di Lucci, remembers one of the phrases he heard José say all these days: “I always wanted a girl, now I have her and I’m going to have her”
“In Uruguay, a baby weighing less than 400 and a few grams had never been discharged from the hospital. There was hardly any in the world: the record was held by an American child who was born weighing 245 grams, then was surpassed by a German weighing 230, and last year Kwek Yu Xuan saw the light in Singapore, which lowered the mark to 212 ( the same as an apple) ”, indicated the media about Olivia’s case.
Miriam, the mother, is 26 years old, she is a housewife, also the mother of Thiago (who is ten years old) and a woman who lost two pregnancies. At week 21 of Olivia’s pregnancy, she had an ultrasound and was told that the baby was not growing.
Graciela Gadola is the gynecologist who treated her and about her case she said: “It was a difficult decision, the statistics showed that it would almost certainly be a fetal death (deceased fetus that is expelled), but, following the wishes of the parents and after several he bet on life”.
So they started a treatment: daily heparin injections, a drug that prevents blood clotting, until reaching week 27, the minimum required for life outside the womb to be viable. At that moment a decision had to be made: to operate and perform a cesarean section.
Professor of Neonatology Daniel Borbonet, who is also head of Pediatrics at the American Sanatorium, where Olivia was born, said that he did it “at the right moment… a few more hours and he may not have resisted.”
Olivia spent a total of 83 days in pediatric intensive care. Each of them, next to their parents.
“When she passed 800 grams, two months later, they let me hold her for the first time. She was so scared that between the shakes the oxygen tube was unplugged and the baby began to turn purple. A nurse came, a genius, and she told me: ‘Don’t worry, father, everything is fine’”, José recounted about that time.
However, the fear still persists. The fear that Olivia may not resist or not knowing if she will grow up with sequels. In any case, Miriam does not stop believing. She is already planning her celebration for the year, in Tacuarembo, where she lives, and she repeats herself: “Do not give up”.