THENI: Doctors and paramedics at the Government Theni Medical College Hospital were in for a surprise after a 25-year-old woman gave birth to a collodion baby that resembled a plastic doll. Such a baby is born encased in a tight, shiny membrane resembling a plastic wrap and is often premature.
Premalatha (name changed) of Chinnamanur was hospitalised after she developed labour pain on December 9. The woman was delivered of a girl child the next day. The doctors, on seeing the collodian baby, they incubated it to save the infant. But their efforts went in vain, the baby died on the third day of its birth. The couple have a normal male child and the collodian girl baby was their second.
This was one of the rarest neonatal cases the doctors have seen at the hospital ever since it was opened in 2006. A senior medical officer told Express that this is the first time they have attended to the delivery of a collodian baby. These babies develop cracks in their skin after birth and the membrane gets peeled off automatically within a period of 15-30 days. The plastic coating-like skin makes the life of the child miserable. It remains under constant threat of infection when the body sheds skin. The tightness of the membrane might cause a condition called ectropion in which eyelid is turned outwards away from the eyeball revealing the pink inner lid. These infants are also at risk for fluid loss and dehydration among others.