Dead baby brought back to life

CEBU - Two Australian doctors helped revive a baby girl about 30 minutes after she was born clinically dead last Thursday, and a local hospital official said she faces possible serious brain damage because of the ordeal.

Jaime Kaamiño, chief of the Lapu-Lapu City District Hospital, said the possibility of serious brain damage is not remote since the baby, Angelica Legarde, had no oxygen for more than 30 minutes.

"Normally, that is bound to happen. But then that would also depend on the body resistance of the baby. We cannot say for sure as of now that her brain is already damaged," Kaamiño said.

Kaamiño said the effects of oxy-gen deprivation on Baby Angelica will only become pronounced as she grows older and can be manifested in the way she will talk, move or think.

Angelica was born clinically dead Thursday afternoon to 22-year-old Rosalie Legarde after getting trapped for three minutes in her vaginal canal, according to chief nurse Grace Estremos, who eventually managed to help the mother push the baby out.

Legarde arrived at the hospital at about 12:30 p.m. already in labor and gave birth to the 7.7-pound baby an hour and 20 minutes later with the baby's Apgar score, which measures the level of breathing, placed at zero.

Australian doctors Brian Horan and Matty Shaw and nurse Sue Slater, who were in the hospital as members of a humanitarian medical mission, rushed to the delivery room upon being informed of the problem.

They helped the hospital's doctors in resuscitating the baby by inserting a tube into her lungs through the mouth and manually pumping in air. But it was not until 30 minutes later that they managed to revive the baby.

Nurse Edith Nuñez said the endotracheal tube was eventually removed by the Australian doctors at 5:45 p.m.

The doctors, Nuñez said, recommended that Legarde start breastfeeding Angelica right after the tube was removed, but nurses noticed abnormal muscle movements by the baby while being breastfed.

Hospital pediatrician Ramon Javellana immediately ordered the breastfeeding stopped, and Angelica is now being fed intravenously under close observation.

Hospital staffers fear the unusual twitching of the baby's hands was the effect of having been born clinically dead.

But Horan and Shaw, after a neurological examination of the baby, said the muscle movements were normal and that there was nothing to worry about.

At present, Angelica is doing well, but will have to stay at the hospital for a week for further observation.