A baby boy who weighed only 7.5 ounces at birth has been released from a ṩïńġäṗöŕệ hospital, making him the world’s smallest child to be successfully treated.
Wong Mei Ling, who was five months pregnant at the time, was transported to ṩïńġäṗöŕệ’s National University Hospital with abdominal pains on June 8 last year.
Doctors informed her that she had preeclampsia, dangerously high вlσσd pressure during pregnancy that necessitated an emergency cesarean section.
Concerns grew following the procedure: Kwek Yu Xuan, the newborn baby girl, weighed only 7.5 ounces at birth, less than half of the weight doctors had predicted. She looks to have been one of the tiniest newborn babies ever to survive, weighing about the same as an apple or gяαρєfruit.
Yu Xuan was released from the hospital last month, weighing about 14 pounds, after just over thirteen months of medical treatment, according to the hospital.
Yu Xuan’s survival was brought to the public’s attention over the weekend via a story in ṩïńġäṗöŕệ’s Strait Times.
Yvonne Ng, a senior consultant at National University Hospital’s neonatology department, told the newspaper that the patient’s small stature meant the nurses couldn’t employ traditional care measures and had to innovate.
“She was so small,” Ng explained, “that even the prescription calculation had to be done down to the decimal points.”
Staff told the Strait Times that even diapers made for premature babies were too big for Yu Xuan, and nurses would have to cut them down to fit.
Yu Xuan may be one of the tiniest babies ever to survive delivery. According to the University of Iowa’s Tiniest Babies Registry, which keeps track of the world’s tiniest surviving babies, the current record holder is an 8.6-ounce girl born in San Diego in 2018. The girl was dubbed “Saybie” by the staff.
“Oh, my God, I can’t believe how small she is,” I said. Maybe it was delivered by Paul Wozniak, a neonatologist at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns in San Diego, who told The Post at the time.
Yu Xuan’s early years in ṩïńġäṗöŕệ were anything but smooth. Her lungs, which were not fully grown at her birth, are still causing her trouble. According to the Strait Times, she still has lung problems and is on a ventilator.
Wong and her husband, Kwek Wee Liang, are Malaysians who have made ṩïńġäṗöŕệ their permanent home. They have had to stay away from their family, including a young son, while Yu Xuan recovers. The 13-month medical stay cost well over $100,000, but they could raise significantly more through crowdsourcing.
“We are delighted for the little f̾i̾g̾h̾t ̾er and her family, and we are pleased with the care our staff provided. On Saturday, National University Hospital posted on Facebook, “Our best wishes to Little Yu Xuan as she continues to grow, flourish, and defy the odds every day.”
