Cape Town - When Chesley Barthies was born at Groote Schuur Hospital nine years ago, he was so tiny he could fit into the palm of his parent’s hand.
His mother Rene recalls how fragile he was - born at 28 weeks and only weighing 790g - and how she and her husband Marico had been counselled to prepare them for his possible death.
“Chesley was so small that I could easily put him in a shoe box with a blanket wrapped around him. I could not bring myself to touch him… just in case his bones broke. Doctors said he couldn’t be ventilated as he was less than a kilogram. He just had to breathe on his own, and miraculously he pulled through,” she said.
After several episodes of complications ranging from hernias to digestive system problems that resulted in him being taken to theatre eight times, he was later transferred from Groote Schuur’s neonatal unit to Red Cross Hospital.
His mother said the three months he spent in an incubator at Groote Schuur’s neonatal unit had been instrumental in his survival.
She was only 26 weeks pregnant when she developed high blood pressure. “During the pregnancy doctors tried to push me as far as possible to allow the baby’s lungs to develop. But at 28 weeks I had to go for an emergency C-section after Chesley went into distress. Today I look back and I can’t believe how much he’s grown and what he’s achieved.”
The unit, which treats about 3 200, or 8 percent, of the province’s most underdeveloped and sickest babies, is taking strain due to the growing number of pre-term births.
A fund-raising campaign – a joint initiative of the Newborns Groote Schuur Trust, the Cape Argus, Good Hope FM and Ogilvy Public Relations – is hoping to raise R26-million to expand the neonatal unit and upgrade its lifesaving equipment.
On Thursday doctors and nurses at the unit swopped their navy and white uniforms, and white coats for purple to highlight the campaign launched this week. All the premature babies were also dressed in purple t-shirts which were donated by Naartjie.
About 500 of the 3 200 premature babies cared for in the unit weigh less then 1.5kg. The average birth weight of a full-term newborn is about 3.4kg. The smallest baby in the unit is a 500g baby girl from Langa who was born a week ago.
Professor Mike Harrison, head of the Department of Neonatal Medicine at Groote Schuur and UCT said while the unit saved more than 90 percent of premature and underweight babies every year, space constraints posed challenges in the effective recovery.
“Sometimes it becomes a challenge to do this when you work in such a confined environment,” he said.
- Cape Argus