On the eve of the Day of Preterm Babies, 40 “rush babies” visited their rescuers from the neonatology centre at St Nicholas Children’s Hospital.
The doctors organised a party for their youngest patients to see how they have grown up and to rejoice with their families.
They were born so tiny that they could fit in their mothers’ palms, and now they have grown up and came to thank their doctors who fought desperately for their lives. For example, Sasha, who was born at 31 weeks’ gestation, is now 9 years old.
Neonatologists spent a long time nursing the baby, who was not breathing, first in the intensive care unit, then in the neonatal pathology department. Now Sasha plays football and, of course, does not remember what he and his parents went through.
The doctors in Lviv have made such meetings a tradition and organise a holiday every year. For the kids it is an opportunity to have fun and play, for the doctors it is a chance to enjoy the results of their selfless work and to remind the society once again of the difficulties that preterm babies and their parents go through.
Every year, the specialists at the St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital nurse more than 300 preemies. The team of the Neonatology Centre helps these babies to be born, learn to breathe and eat on their own, and overcome possible complications that are common to premature babies.