Born At Just 212 Grams, This M’sian Baby Is The World’s Smallest Surviving Infant

Kwek Yu Xuan is now 14-months-old and doing well after successfully being discharged out of hospital!

A 14-month-old baby to a Malaysian couple residing in Singapore is possibly the world’s lightest surviving baby born after she was born prematurely in Singapore at only 212 grams on 9 June 2020. As reported by national news agency Bernama, the baby, Kwek Yu Xuan was discharged well from hospital on 9 July 2021 and now weighs 6.3kg.

The small and fragile baby had a slim chance of survival with multiple health complications at birth but thanks to experts at Singapore’s National university Hospital (NUH), she pulled through and can finally go back home to her family.

Yu Xuan’s parents are a Malaysian couple with permanent residence in Singapore who wanted to initially deliver Yu Xuan in Malaysia and reunite with their first child, a 4-year-old residing in Malaysia but due to preeclampsia or high blood pressure during pregnancy, the mother was admitted to NUH and underwent emergency caesarean section at 24 weeks and six days of gestation. For reference, the average gestation period is 40 weeks.

According to Bio Spectrum Asia, Yu Xuan currently has chronic lung disease and pulmonary hypertension which are two conditions commonly associated with extreme prematurity. However, she is expected to get better with time.

Furthermore, according to the Tiniest Babies Registry managed by The University of Iowa, Yu Xuan is possibly the world’s lightest baby born and discharged well to go home. The previous smallest survivor in the world was born 245 grams in the United States as reported by BBC in May 2019.

During a virtual media briefing hosted by NUH yesterday (7 August 2021), Yu Xuan’s mother, Wong Mei Ling said,

“We are now happy that she is doing well and discharged. We are very impressed and grateful to the doctors and nurses of the NUH neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team for the attentive and wonderful medical care and treatment of Yu Xuan,”

“In addition, we would like to express our thanks to the crowdfunding platform GIVE.asia and donors, as well as our relatives, friends, colleagues and the landlord of our residence for their care and encouragement,”

The parents managed to raise more than RM1,000,000 for Yu Xuan’s medical bills via GIVE.asia.

Awesome! Let’s hope that Yu Xuan will continue to stay healthy and live a long, prosperous life.

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