REMARKABLE RECORD

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 4, 5 July 1927, Page 13

REMARKABLE RECORD

A EAEITANE ACHIEVEMENT

Something of a sensation was provided at the annual meeting of the Wellington Plunket Societies last week, and also at the Lower Hutt branch's annual meeting, by Sir Truby King's description of a very unusual case now in the Truby King (Karitane) Hospital. Tho baby is one of twins born 2$ months before their time, the other child having died. The survivor, when admitted, weighed only 21b. Her weight last Monday was 4Jlb, and she was a picture of plump, healthy vitality. If progress continued at the present rate her weight at one month after the normal date of birth would be 71b —only Jib less than that of the average normal girl baby born at the full term. The progress of this child under the treatment at Karitane was illustrated by a graph,- which is here reproduced. Concerning the diagram, Sir Truby King writes:—"ln order to emphasise the 2§ months' prematurity, sunrise is depicted as showing the date on which the baby should normally have come out of darkness into the light of day. "A 'premature' is not necessarily an intrinsically weak or delicate child, but is merely one severed from direct connection with the mother before the due date. The vitality and natural 'growth impulse' may be strong, and with skilled care and attention everything may be made to go well—as shown in the graph."