Chennai, 20 July: In a remarkable achievement of neonatal medicine, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Potheri, has successfully discharged an extremely premature baby born at just 24 weeks of gestation, weighing only 680 grams at birth.
The baby was born to a couple from Guduvancheri in April 2026 following an emergency delivery necessitated by abruptio placenta.
The baby required 104 days of hospital stay including NICU care with ventilator support, surfactant administration and other advanced intensive care.
At present the baby is thriving well without oxygen support with good neurological status. The discharge weight is 2.7kg.
Dr. Jayanthi R, Dean, and Dr. Venkatraman R, Medical Superintendent, congratulated the NICU team under the leadership of Dr. Ashok C, for their exceptional dedication and clinical expertise in achieving this outstanding outcome. Other team members consisted of Dr. Anand Kumar. G, Dr. Arun Kumar. T, Dr Shrinidhi. K and health care professionals. The obstetric department HOD, Dr. Anuradha. M was also congratulated for timely delivery.
SRM NICU is one of the best tertiary care units with state-of-the-art technology. It handles approximately 400 babies delivered here every month. Earlier the unit successfully discharged a 520 grams baby delivered at 26 weeks of gestation. The neonatal unit consistently gives good neonatal outcomes with a variety of challenging cases. According to statistics, the intact survival of babies delivered at 24 weeks of gestation is less than 15%.