On ventilator, H1N1 patient delivers twins Swine flu nearly claimed her life but she fought through to deliver twin boys after a C-section. Shilpa (27) and Dinesh (31) (names changed) were married for over three years but the joy of parenthood remained a distant dream for them. Natives of Tamil Nadu, they stay in BTM Layout in the city. “I tried to conceive many times but couldn’t. It was then that I met Dr Rashmi Yogish at Dr Malathi Manipal Hospital in Jayanagar,” she said. Shilpa had reduced ovarian reserves and Dr Rashmi, infertility specialist and gynaecologist, put her on treatment immediately. Soon after, her pregnancy test came positive. Dr Rashmi said, “A scan showed she was carrying triplets. To reduce the risk she was advised foetal reduction, which meant she would now be carrying twins. All her scans were normal till her seventh month.” Shilpa and her family members were so happy that they decided to have a grand baby shower, for which she travelled to her home town during the seventh month of pregnancy. When she returned to Bangalore a month later, she had a severe cough and cold. “I thought that it was a normal cough and cold and did not take it seriously. But when it persisted I decided to go to the doctor on September 3,” she said. “I saw that there was an increase in the foetal pulse rate. The pregnancy was special and I felt I had to save the twins at any cost,” Dr Rashmi said. On the doctor’s insistence, Shilpa got herself admitted to the hospital and was started on antibiotics and nebulisation. “On September 4, I started feeling breathless and was admitted to the ICU. I could barely sense what was happening, but kept praying that my babies should be fine as my pregnancy had happened after a long wait,” she said. Dr Rashmi realised she had to do a premature C-section as Shilpa was 31 weeks pregnant. “I had only administered an injection for the lung maturity of the babies. On September 5 at 2.30 am, with Shilpa comatose and hooked to a ventilator, we extracted the male babies. They weighed 1.5 kg and 1.3 kg. They had multiple problems which were tackled by a neonatologist,” Dr Rashmi said. By then, Shilpa had been diagnosed with H1N1. “The first thing I noticed when I came out of the coma was that my stomach was flat. When I asked for my babies, the nurses handed my twins to me. It was overwhelming,” she said. Shilpa’s husband Dinesh, a software engineer, is overjoyed. “I had given up hope. I was just praying that we sail through this and we managed to do so thanks to Shilpa’s grit,” he said. Shilpa recovered from the flu and was discharged on September 20. Wiser after her near-death experience, she said, “Expectant mothers should not neglect their health even if it is a small cough or cold.” News from Bangalore Mirror : bangaloremirror/bangalore/others/On-ventilator-H1N1-patient-delivers-twins/articleshow/24612823.cms?
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 09:50:34 +0000
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