Kenyan hospital successfully transfuses blood to baby in the womb
Kenya's oldest and largest hospital has delivered a newborn baby who received a blood transfusion while in his mother’s womb.
The Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) welcomed Blessing who was the sixth of his mother’s pregnancies after she lost five others to miscarriages and after-birth complications over time since 2017.
“I got my first pregnancy in 2017 when we discovered that I was carrying twins. At some point, I became unwell, went to hospital, and was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I underwent a caesarean section to save the babies, but they both died - one immediately after birth, and the other in the nursery.
“I got pregnant again in 2019 but miscarried at six months. On my third pregnancy, I miscarried at one month, and when I sought an explanation, I was informed that I had rhesus complications. I got pregnant again for the fourth time in 2022, but at nine months, just a week before the delivery date, I underwent an ultrasound scan, where doctors found that my baby had an infection. I underwent the second C-section, but the baby did not survive,” Blessing's mother Melodious Moraa was quoted by Kenyan news platform Nation.
The baby had been diagnosed with anaemia and needed a blood transfusion in order to live. Doctors said the baby was high-risk. In August 2023, Moraa had to be sedated with a needle driven into her abdomen and directed at the baby’s umbilical cord at the point it met the placenta. The baby was given an O-negative blood transfusion when the mother was 5 months pregnant after which both mother and baby were monitored intensively until October 19 when she underwent a C-section to deliver her son.
The baby was delivered prematurely because the medical team said it was too dangerous to continue the pregnancy considering the situation.
Blessing was delivered with a very low haemoglobin level of about four, lower than the between 16 and 18 levels which could lead to the failure of most of his vital organs.
Dr Rosa Chemwey, a maternal-foetal medicine specialist explained that such situations happen when women are exposed to positive antigens when they have rhesus-negative blood. Their bodies develop antibodies to fight the positive antigens.
“In subsequent pregnancies, the antibodies cross the placenta and start destroying the baby’s blood. That is how the baby gets anaemic over time,” Dr Chemwey was quoted by Nation.
Nurses at the Kenyatta Hospital had to take several steps to ensure the baby survived.
Blessing's survival is a medical and technological milestone which has earned the hospital’s doctors admiration.
