A few months ago, a young mother from a remote village in East Palpa arrived in advanced labour in the Emergency Room at only 27 weeks pregnant. She was immediately rushed to the maternity ward and a small 1,200g baby was born struggling to breathe. While a doctor and some nurses were actively resuscitating this baby, the midwife assessing the mother realised a second baby was on the way. Just a few minutes later, a 1,100g baby was born also struggling to breathe. Back-up doctors and nurses were called in to help both these beautiful twin girls breathe.

The first three hours were stressful but by using a donated BIPAP machine from Sweden, these twins were just able to maintain their oxygen saturation. They had breathing difficulties due to immature lungs. Many times this requires an expensive ‘surfactant’ medicine (which UMHT does not have) and intubation with ventilation, but our BIPAP machine did the trick. Slowly we were able to begin tube feeding these children. They came off the BIPAP machine after a couple of weeks and things were progressing well until around day 20 of life when the twins started to develop a common life-threatening intestinal complication in pre-term infants that often requires intravenous (IV) nutrition, which we do not have. By the grace of God, both twins were able to begin feeding after some bowel rest and IV antibiotics. With the worst complications behind us, the older twin had leg swelling that didn’t resolve. An ultrasound revealed an abscess. After drainage and another 14 days of antibiotics, the twins were feeding well and ready for discharge.

They stayed in our hospital more than 10 weeks and survived several complications. Hundreds of people around the world were praying for these little girls. We are thankful to staff for taking care of them and to those who donated money to pay for their treatment, since their father (a truck driver) had left his work to be with them.