On April 15, 2021, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi 'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) held a media briefing on the treatment of the premature IVF twins of the youngest gestational age in Northwest China. Zhou Xihui, Director of Department of Neonatology, introduced the treatment process of the youngest premature IVF twins. After over 90 days of arduous work, this pair of premature IVF twins of Mr. Dong were finally recovered and discharged from hospital.
On January 11, 2021, Department of Neonatology received an emergent call from Department of Obstetrics saying that "a pair of 24+4 weeks IVF twins in delivery room were at the risk of premature delivery due to premature rupture of membranes”. Director Zhou Xihui immediately set up a qualified neonatal resuscitation team, rushing to the delivery room. Meantime, high-grade incubators and ventilators with the optimal warming and moisturizing effect were also prepared for two infants, a single ward was arranged, and a special nursing team was set up. Everything was ready for the early arrival of two angels.
At birth, two babies failed to breathe spontaneously. With abundant clinical experience in endotracheal intubation, Physicians Lin Xiaojie and Wang Fanghui quickly completed endotracheal intubation and established a precious breathing channel for two babies as rapidly as possible. The transfer team immediately and safely transferred these two brothers from the delivery room to the "hyper-premature ward" of NICU in Department of Neonatology. Since then, a fight for saving the lives of two premature babies was launched and endured for more than 90 days.
These two boys have encountered multiple challenges including "apnea, feeding intolerance, jaundice, infection, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and retinopathy of prematurity",etc. The medical and nursing teams worked tirelessly around-the-clock to overcome each challenge. The physicians carefully adjusted the parameters of ventilators, accurately calculated the infusion dosage of drugs and nutrient solutions, dynamically monitored the changes of brain development and lung diseases by bedside ultrasound and performed localization by inserting PICC catheter. Seven experienced and skilled nurses formed a special nursing team to safeguard the babies 24 hours a day, and delivered turnover, back knocking, sucking sputum, wiping mouth, nasal milk feeding, drawing blood, blood infusion, and paying intensive attention to the infantile vital signs.
The treatment process was jointly completed by physicians from Department of Ophthalmology, Operating Room and Department of Anesthesia. Upon the fundus screening at two months after birth, Cheng Yuhong, an ophthalmologist, found that the twins were diagnosed with "retinopathy of prematurity". Hence, it was an urgency to deliver intraoculardizumab injection immediately to avoid the incidence of blindness. Under the explicit arrangement of Pei Cheng, Director of Department of Ophthalmology and Wang Qiang, Director of Department of Anesthesiology, the retinopathy of prematurity was effectively treated.
On April 15, 2021, the youngest preterm IVF twins in Northwest China were eventually recovered and discharged from hospital after the arduous rescue of the medical and nursing teams from Department of Neonatology of our hospital.
