Dubai: Sristi’s parents are desperate to hug her after waiting 12 years to conceive. But that has to wait since the baby girl — born just weighing 600 grams on August 2 — needs more time to grow.
Sristi was delivered prematurely at just 25 weeks after her mother, Liezl Vaidya, developed complications due to an acute case of pre-eclampsia.
Sristi has been at the Neo-natal ICU of Latifa Hospital for more than two months where she is being treated for chronic lung disease and pulmonary hypertension.
“I’m dying to hug her, to cuddle her kangaroo style because I know it would help her develop faster as [research suggests]. But until now I can’t do it because she’s still breathing through a ventilator,” Liezl, 37, a housewife, told Gulf News.
“I cried when I first saw her. She was very thin.”
Liezl, a Filipina, said Sristi — Hindi for “creation” — is a miracle baby. She and her Indian husband, Parag, had waited 12 years to have a baby before deciding to go for in vitro fertilisation.
But just before going through the procedure in January this year, she was asked to take a pregnancy test.
Liezl tested positive. The couple was ecstatic.
“I wasn’t expecting that I’d still get pregnant although we were hoping because we’ve been married for 12 years. We were very happy because we didn’t have to shell out a lot of money for the IVF,” Liezl said.
But 25 weeks into the pregnancy, Liezl’s blood pressure shot up abnormally, forcing her doctors to deliver her baby.
“Sristi’s eyes were covered then. Her legs were shaking. Each leg was as thin as my ring finger. When she breathed, you could feel that she’s having difficulty.”
Sristi has been in the incubator since, supported by a ventilator. Her weight has now gone up to 1.75kg, so has her hospital bill at more than Dh280,000.
Liezl said she and her husband, who works in a trading company, cannot afford their daughter’s mounting hospital bills. Her husband earns Dh14,000 but is paying Dh4,000 monthly on a loan taken last year to cover a family emergency in India. He can’t take another loan.
They budgeted Dh22,500 for their baby’s delivery through their insurance. But that proved too little for their actual expenses. Every day, Sristi’s NICU hospitalisation costs Dh3,900. That’s besides her medicines and laboratory tests.
Through the help of friends and the group Volunteers in UAE, around Dh70,000 was raised in September. But Sristi needs to stay in the incubator for around one more month.
“She was improving for the first two months, although sometimes she can’t tolerate her milk. There are times when her lungs would collapse and my husband and I would both freak out. We’d just cry silently,” Liezl whispered in tears.
“When I get to hold her legs, her hands, I pray for her, I talk to her and tell her not to be afraid, that everything will be OK. I always tell her that people are praying for her and that we’re coming home soon.”
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