The stunning recent advances in neonatal medicine were on display in North Carolina recently, when a baby was born at just 22 weeks gestation.
Weighing merely 1lb 2oz (510g), little Lyric Elaine was born a whole four months before her due date. Her mother, Lura Lauer, was pregnant with twins, but sadly the other twin, Cali Rose, passed away two days after birth.
When Lura felt her contractions becoming more intense, she attended a local maternity hospital. But upon realising that a ‘do not resuscitate’ order would be placed on her twins if they were born under 24 weeks gestation, she decided to transfer to the Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center. At Novant Hospital, there was an advanced neonatal care unit which would do everything possible to save her babies, should they be born prematurely.
When the twins were born last month, they measured just 11 inches long. Both Lyric and Cali had brain hemorrhages, which tragically Cali succumbed to two days after birth.
But Lyric fought hard, and over two weeks after birth, her mum Lura was able to hold her for the first time.
Speaking to the Sun newspaper in the US, Lura said that “It just baffles me that so many hospitals don’t resuscitate at that age, because it is absolutely possible for a baby to survive…This is why I wanted to share her story. Lyric is an inspiration to me and to so many other people. She is a beacon of hope in hopeless times.”
Stories like the triumph of little Lyric show so clearly the humanity of the unborn child, and the need for medical practice to continue to treat two patients and not just one, because both lives matter.
You can just Say ‘Photo Credits © The Sun Newspaper’
