AN infant who was born prematurely in a Shenzhen hospital at only 530 grams, or as light as a bottle of water, is now fortunate to be in stable condition after a whole-hearted rescue effort that last longer than a month.

    About a month ago, a woman gave birth to the baby when she was only 23 weeks and six days into her pregnancy. The normal gestation for an infant is about 37 to 40 weeks.

    The newborn was in a critical situation when he was sent to the Shenzhen Bao’an Maternal and Child Health Hospital. Doctors and nurses immediately put the newborn into an incubator for treatment.

    Professors from two renowned children’s hospitals in Taiwan and Japan, Lin Hongzhi and Toyoshima, came to the hospital to save the newborn.

    Through examinations and discussions, the two doctors agreed that the premature infant had received proper treatment in the early stages, but still needed further treatment for bronchial dysplasia as well as an issue called patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).

    Though it is a miracle that such a weak life was saved, Lin said that such miracles are taking place more and more thanks to the increasing advances in medical technology. The survival rate of premature infants has continued to increase in recent years.

    It was hardly the first time that the Bao’an hospital received and treated a premature newborn.

    Two years ago, the hospital saved and cared for a baby boy who was believed to be the youngest newborn in the world at the time. The child’s gestational age was just less than 5 months when he was born.

    When the boy celebrated his first birthday at the hospital with the medical teams that had once cared for him, he was 64 centimeters tall and weighed 5.5 kilograms.

    Throughout 2016, the hospital received 28 newborns that weighed less than 1 kilogram.

    (Zhang Qian)