Sharjah: Charmyl Meneses, like most mums, longs for the day when she can finally cuddle her baby and bring him home healthy and away from the hospital’s intensive care unit.
Charmyl’s son, baby Ethan, was born extremely premature — after a gestation period of just 23 weeks and 4 days — on October 4 at Prime Hospital Dubai. His tiny frame at that point was maybe only slightly bigger than a 500ml packaged water bottle and weighed hardly 650g.
The delicate baby, despite having to contend with a number of complications associated with extremely premature birth, has fought through it all.
The complications included intraventricular haemorrhage or bleeding in the brain, respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, inguinal hernia, neonatal convulsions, thrombocytopenia or abnormally low blood platelet count, abnormally low sodium levels and high blood sugar.
On February 26, he was operated on for his hernia but was sent back to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of University Hospital Sharjah (UHS) that had been his home for more than four months. He was moved there for an immediate surgical opinion in October due to abdominal distension. Fortunately, little Ethan’s condition improved and the surgery was cancelled.
Before the transfer, baby Ethan stayed at Prime Hospital for 22 days.
In December and January, he was twice given treatment for retinopathy of prematurity bilateral stage 3, an eye disease that occurs in premature babies where abnormal blood vessels grow in the retina. The condition can lead to blindness.
“He’s a fighter,” Charmyl says with a smile. “I was beyond scared when doctors said my cervix had ruptured but he would stitch it to prevent pre-term labour. I was worried for my baby; he wasn’t even 23 weeks yet.”
Ethan was born the very next day. A team of doctors and nurses worked hard to save mother and son.
The medical team looking after baby Ethan at UHS since October have been doing their best to care for him, Charmyl said, and the family is extremely grateful.
In the five months since Ethan was born, Charmyl has only had the chance to personally care for him or cuddle him for a few days in February when he was discharged from the NICU. But her joy was shortlived. “We were in a regular hospital room and I would bathe him, feed him, and cuddle him. But then all of a sudden his blood oxygen level dropped to 19 per cent, which was dangerously low and meant he had to go back to the NICU.”
The rollercoaster ride for Baby Ethan and his parents is far from over. Even if he is discharged soon, his parents still face a mountain of medical bills, which as of February stood at Dh496,229 from the two hospitals.
Romeo, Ethan’s father, says they’ve put together all the money they had saved along with additional contributions from family and friends, besides financial support from the St Mary’s Catholic Church to tackle their debt but have only managed to pay off roughly Dh43,000.
The couple’s combined income of Dh12,100 from jobs in the construction and banking sectors is not enough to make significant instalment payments since they have another son to support besides other expenses.
“I’ve done everything I could, knocked on so many doors, requested help from so many charities, I have exhausted all means. We appreciate any kind of help whether big or small,” Romeo told Gulf News.
When contacted by Gulf News, an official from the Assistance to Nationals Section of the Philippine Consulate-General said they will request financial assistance from their home office but this is subject to approval. The department cannot cover the full medical bill though.
“Our situation sometimes can be very overwhelming. The only thing that keeps us going is prayer and the thought of our son who has been fighting the battle with us from the beginning,” Charmyl said.
