Dong ThapThe three-day-old baby boy was discovered by his family to be pale and have digestive fluid in his nose and mouth. Doctors resuscitated him and used vasopressors but he did not survive.
On the afternoon of April 19, Dong Thap Health Department held a press conference to provide initial information about the death when family members posted reaction videos on social networks.
According to the report, the 22-year-old pregnant woman was hospitalized on April 15 at Dong Thap Military and Civilian Hospital. She was 37 weeks pregnant, had a baby, was breech, and labor was delayed. The next morning, the doctor successfully operated on a 2.8 kg boy, and mother and child were monitored at the hospital.
In a video shared on social networks, the family said they had twice reported the boy’s fever and vomiting to the doctor for examination on the afternoon of April 18. The doctor noted that the child had a mild fever of 37.6 degrees and a normal blood oxygen index. He instructed the family to closely monitor and notify the on-duty team when seeing abnormal conditions.
Late at night, the grandmother discovered that the baby was pale and took him to the emergency room. Doctor Duong Quoc Dinh, Director of Dong Thap Military and Civilian Hospital, said that when received, the baby was pale, had cardiac arrest, and stopped breathing.
The emergency team suctioned out phlegm and mucus, intubated the baby’s airway to clear the baby’s airway, and at the same time massaged the heart outside the chest and used vasopressors. After 30 minutes of resuscitation, the baby’s condition did not improve.
The preliminary conclusion of the Dong Thap Department of Health is that the baby died due to acute respiratory failure suspected to be due to infant digestive fluid aspiration syndrome. Explaining more about this syndrome, Doctor Doan Tan Buu, Director of the Department of Health, said that newborns have a breathing rate twice that of adults. When a baby drinks milk, it will form a thick, lumpy mixture when it enters the stomach. When vomiting the mixture out, the child may inhale it back due to rapid breathing. This situation can cause airway obstruction and needs to be detected immediately for treatment.
According to the provincial health sector leaders, newborn babies have many risks in the first 28 days. If care and monitoring techniques are not good, unpredictable complications can easily occur.
“The health sector will reorganize and retrain knowledge on obstetric emergency and postpartum care for all medical examination and treatment facilities, and at the same time promote recommendations and propaganda to people about the programs.” essential care for newborn children,” Mr. Buu said.