Battle for life: Baby's yet to cry

Aastha Shetty was born on May 12. A month and a half down the line, she is yet to cry. Worse, her tiny frame is connected to several tubes and pipes as she remains inactive, has no visual following and is unable to feed by mouth. As she battles for life in an incubator at Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, her distraught mother, Ashwini Shetty, is appealing for help to treat the little one. "I know my child is in a very critical condition, but as a parent I want to do the best I can till she is in my care," she said. Ashwini said the trauma began when she was in her seventh month of pregnancy and the baby in her womb began to gasp for breath due to loss of fluid in the uterus. It came as a rude shock to her as she had conceived after nine long years since the birth of her first child. "Everything was going well and I don't understand how the fluid loss could go undetected during my regular check-ups," said Ashwini who was consulting a private clinic in Sharjah. She said she was forced to undergo an emergency C-section at a private hospital in Sharjah where Aastha was born at 36 weeks and three days. She was not breathing initially but subsequently began to respond although there was considerable damage to her brain. The medical report has diagnosed Aastha with "severe perinatal birth asphyxia with intra-ventricular bleeds and neo-natal convulsions". She is also afflicted with a severe brain injury with fluid collection but a shunt operation to remove the fluid cannot be done until her condition improves. "The neurosurgeons have recommended periodic ventricular taps until her condition stabilises when a VP shunt will be performed," she said. But all of this costs money, which the family can ill afford. "We have already spent Dh25,000 on her treatment in Sharjah," said Ashwini who works as an export coordinator with a private food company at Jebel Ali. She said her husband works with a realty company and they do not have any insurance. "We have no clue how long the treatment will take or how many surgeries have to be performed. All the treatments are sensitive and very expensive," she said, worried about how the family will foot the mounting bills. She said taking Aastha to her home country, India, is also not an option given her present condition. "Besides, the arrangements and cost of shifting her are too much. "We will be grateful for any help we can get," she added. From / Gulf News