Naples, Danish baby born in the sixth month and with a heart problem has returned to Copenhagen

A Danish baby girl, born six months prematurely at the Hospital Cardarelli di Napoli, she returned home safe and sound.

Ingrid, this is her name, came into the world under extraordinary circumstances. Her parents, on vacation in Naples during her pregnancy, had to deal with an emergency preterm birth.

Immediately the hospital gynecologists, led by the head physician Claudio Santangelo, had accompanied the woman in a spontaneous premature birth that could not be postponed. This is how Ingrid was born last April, a 26-week-old baby girl weighing about one kilo.

Thanks to the care of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit led by Maria Gabriella De Luca, despite the birth being very preterm, the baby's growth was satisfactory until the seventh month.

Thanks to intensive care at Cardarelli and a subsequent heart operation at Monaldi Hospital, the little girl managed to get through the first months of life, despite complications. Her story is an example of how medical excellence can overcome every boundary and offer a second chance at life.

A Miracle of Medicine: Ingrid's Story

The premature birth, caused by complications during the parents' pregnancy, required intensive care. The little girl was born weighing about one kilogram.

In fact, one month after birth, the continuous monitoring by the Cardarelli team highlighted that time and pharmacological therapies were not enough to close the "Botallo's duct“, an arterial channel connecting the aorta and the pulmonary artery that closes spontaneously after birth, but which in the case of the little Danish girl had remained open.

The solution came in May from another Neapolitan hospital, the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery team of the Monaldi led by Guido Oppido intervened on little Ingrid and closed the hole. Thanks to this intervention carried out directly at the Cardarelli, the little girl returned to Copenhagen a few weeks later with a special flight.

“Hospitals are places where doctors, nurses and technicians care for people at turning points in their lives.”

Thus Antonio d'Amore, general manager of Cardarelli, who adds: "Our job is to help and support those in need, ensuring the best possible care. I thank all the staff who took care of little Ingrid, demonstrating, once again, the professionalism, competence and humanity that we are able to ensure."

Today Ingrid is well and lives with her mother and father in Copenhagen, about 2000 km away from her hometown, Naples. The Cardarelli Neonatal Intensive Care Unit treats about 300 newborns every year, coming from all the hospitals in Campania.