'Palm baby' discharged from hospital in Guangzhou

(ECNS) -- The “Palm baby”, an extremely preterm infant weighing 438 grams, was discharged from the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University on Thursday, said Wu fan, a doctor of the hospital.

The infant, smaller than a palm of an adult, is the lightest one successfully treated in Guangzhou at present.

The mother Li Xia suffered from high-risk pregnancy diseases such as pulmonary edema, severe preeclampsia and placenta accreta during pregnancy. On February 24, doctors of this hospital delivered the twin sisters Xiaotian and Xiaoxin.

"The median weight of 26-week-old premature infants is around 800 grams, and the weight of the elder sister is 890 grams, which is normal. But the younger sister is only about half that of premature infants of the same gestational age, which means that her growth isnot as good as that of newborns of the same gestational age, and the treatment is also very difficult,” said Cui Qiliang, a doctor from the hospital’s Department of Newborns.

After treatment, Xiaotian, who had been hospitalized for 84 days, was discharged from the hospital on May 13 with a weight of 2,810 grams. When she returned to hospital for recheck, she weighed 3,440 grams, and all the growth and development indicators reached the normal level of her peers.

On June 9, Xiaoxin, who had been hospitalized for 105 days, was also discharged from the hospital. He weighed 2,690 grams.

Although there is still a gap in indicators like weight between the twins sisters, Xiaoxin has become better compared with the growth curve when she was born.

In the future, the two sisters need professional scientific follow-up management in the children's growth and development department, so as to have their growth and development evaluated.