Sangeetha’s baby was a extremely preterm baby with respiratory distress syndrome.
Within 2 hours of age it was clear she was going to worsen and hence we decided to ventilate her and give her survanta – a special medicine given directly to her lungs. The survanta is 8 milliliters, is given in 5 minutes and costs a whopping 10000 indian rupees. Thankfully she did well after that and within a few days was off the ventilator. After carefully nursing her and letting her feed, today finally she was fit enough to go home. Her total bill including the ICU stay and the ventilation came to about Rs. 20000. Add the survanta charges and what was spent was about 750 US $… almost a thousand dollar baby – thats about the most expensive baby we have had at our hospital!!