Shalom M., 1

Shalom is a 2-week-old twin born prematurely at 34 weeks' gestation with a birth weight of less than 2,000 g. She is the youngest of seven children. Her mother, a small-scale farmer earning about KSh 1,000 per month, struggles to provide for the family, who live in a two-room mud house without electricity and rely on borehole water. Shortly after birth, Shalom developed respiratory distress syndrome and was admitted to the Neonatal ICU, where she required CPAP (a machine that delivers gentle air pressure to keep the lungs open). Because she could not breastfeed, she received trophic feeds (very small amounts of milk to prepare the gut) before transitioning to expressed breast milk. She also developed neonatal jaundice requiring intensive phototherapy, thrombocytopenia (low platelets) requiring fresh frozen plasma transfusion to reduce bleeding risk, and hypocalcaemia (low blood calcium), which was treated. She remained in intensive care for 26 days under close monitoring. Unable to meet the hospital costs, her mother was enrolled into Helpster Charity, enabling Shalom to continue receiving lifesaving treatment.

Shalom is a premature, low-birth-weight newborn who has experienced multiple life-threatening neonatal complications, including respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal jaundice, thrombocytopenia, and hypocalcaemia. She required prolonged Neonatal ICU care with CPAP support, specialized feeding, phototherapy, blood product transfusion, and continuous monitoring. Although she remains medically fragile, she has shown encouraging improvement with treatment. Her prognosis is cautiously favorable, provided she continues to receive adequate nutrition, regular pediatric follow-up, growth and developmental monitoring, and prompt management of any future complications associated with prematurity.