‘World’s Smallest Baby’ Weighed as Much as an Apple. She Survived.

A baby believed to be “the world’s smallest at birth” was discharged and finally sent home after 13 months of intensive care at a hospital in Singapore, an against-the-odds triumph that the hospital called a “ray of hope” during the turmoil of the pandemic.

Born at the height of the outbreak on June 9 last year, Kwek Yu Xuan weighed just 212 grams (7.47 ounces) at birth, about as heavy as a large apple. Her mother Wong Mei Ling, who reportedly suffered from a high blood pressure condition known as preeclampsia, was forced to undergo an emergency cesarean operation 25 weeks into the pregnancy, a little more than halfway into the average term.

Yvonne Ng, a neonatal doctor from Singapore’s National University Hospital (NUH) who was on duty the day Wong was admitted after sustaining abdominal pains, recalled the precarious fight to keep Yu Xuan alive.

“The first thing that I remember was the difficulty in putting a breathing tube into her. She was so tiny that we had to use a smaller sized tube, 2mm in diameter. The doctor who did it, she had to use her fingers to pry open her mouth gently and put it in, it was quite special,” Ng told state broadcaster Channel News Asia.

The doctor said mothers with preeclampsia and hypertension have smaller babies because of poor placental circulation.

The next 13 months involved a battery of treatments requiring precision and delicacy, from the decimal points used to measure out smaller doses of medication to the cutting of custom-fit diapers. Baby Yu Xuan also had extremely fragile skin that could be easily broken, one nurse recalled to Channel NewsAsia, citing the higher risks of infection as a result. At one point, she was also placed on a ventilator for weeks. 

As news of the struggle reached the public, a crowdfunding campaign was launched last year to help the parents with their hospital costs, raising more than $366,000.

Now Yu Xuan is going home at a much healthier 6.3 kilograms. Her parents also have a 4-year-old son and said they looked forward to reuniting their family in Malaysia.

“Against the odds, with health complications present at birth, she has inspired people around her with her perseverance and growth, which makes her an extraordinary ‘COVID-19’ baby — a ray of hope amid turmoil,” NUH said in a statement.

Based on the Tiniest Babies Registry managed by the University of Iowa, Yu Xuan is thought to be the world’s “lightest baby.” The previous small survivor was a baby born in the U.S. who weighed in at just 245 grams.

But Yu Xuan’s medical problems are not over. Her parents have been trained to use equipment at home to further aid her recovery from lingering problems from chronic lung disease. The baby is also still on ventilator support for oxygen assistance and is learning how to feed from a bottle.  

“We had no idea that I would be giving birth to Yu Xuan so soon,” Yu Xuan’s mother was quoted as saying in an interview. “At the time, we were very sad that she [would be] born so small. But due to the high blood pressure, we had no choice [but to deliver].”

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