Dubai- April, 2024- The blind baby boy, who recently turned 60 weeks old and was born prematurely at 27 weeks via an emergency Caesarean section to a mother with gestational diabetes, had glimmers of hope in his eyes despite his Stage 3 Retinopathy of Prematurity. This condition, marked by abnormal blood vessel growth in the retina, compromises eyesight leading to blindness, and is most commonly seen in preterm infants.

The Arab male infant, weighing barely 900 grams and having to spend nearly 92 days at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) after birth, underwent a groundbreaking procedure at Medcare Eye Centre on Sheikh Zayed Road to regain his sight. Witnessing their baby’s extraordinary recovery offered an enormous sense of serenity and comfort to his parents, whose road had been fraught with uncertainty since his early birth.

Shock set in for the anguished parents of the infant warrior as they had conflicting emotions in celebrating the arrival of their tiny bundle of joy. ‘’I didn’t think he had a chance’’ the hapless mother of the infant explained. ‘’You can’t look at such a tiny baby and think this is going to be alright’’.

Meanwhile, a team of multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals from the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) worked tirelessly to save the infant boy, who had chronic lung illness and needed mechanical ventilation to breathe. Because his mother’s gestational diabetes caused complications leading to his premature delivery, loss of vision at birth became a common health concern. Despite the neonatal challenges, the infant’s parents were unaware that anything was abnormal with his vision while he was recuperating in the NICU. Dr. Prasan Rao noticed the infant’s inability to respond to visual cues during a routine NICU assessment at 33 weeks.

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Commenting on the diagnosis, Dr. Prasan Rao, Specialist Ophthalmologist at Medcare Eye Center, said, “The condition called ROP necessitates immediate action to safeguard the baby’s vision and overall well-being as vision impairment in infancy can have profound consequences on the quality of life. Thus, our medical team swiftly devised a comprehensive treatment plan involving meticulous monitoring and therapeutic interventions aimed at halting the progression of ROP and preserving the baby’s sight.”