When Pixie Griffiths-Grant was delivered by emergency C-section, no one expected her to survive. The preemie — who spent just 28 weeks in her mother’s womb — weighed less than a pound.
Now, five months later, she is thriving, and her mother, Sharon Grant, says her miraculous survival is thanks largely to a plastic sandwich bag. That’s right — a sandwich bag from Tesco, a chain of grocery stores in the U.K., where Pixie was born.
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Grant says right after her birth, doctors placed Pixie in the bag to keep her warm before they carried her to an incubator. The pictures of her in that fragile state are terrifying, stunning and ultimately amazing.
While premature babies face a host of potential health risks, it’s encouraging to see how many survive after being born so very little. Survival rates continue to increase. In a recent study published in JAMA, overall rates of survival for preemies born between 22 and 28 weeks in the U.S. increased from 70 percent in 1993 to 79 percent in 2013.
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And in fact, the use of plastic bags such as the one that saved Pixie isn’t as uncommon as you might think when it comes to handling premature babies, especially in countries where other medical equipment isn’t readily available. They help keep a baby’s body warmer than with just with a blanket alone.
Of course, preventing premature births is the ultimate goal, but it’s also encouraging to see tiny babies saved through the miracles of medicine — be it with high-tech equipment or something as simple as a plastic bag.
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