Confirmed Diagnoses

• Prematurity (33 weeks) with Low Birth Weight (LBW) — born 45 days too early, with lungs, immune system, and gut all significantly underdeveloped

• Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) — lungs unable to sustain independent breathing; currently on mechanical ventilator support with surfactant therapy administered

• Septic Shock — a critically severe blood infection that has caused circulatory failure; confirmed by PCT (Procalcitonin) of 11.73 ng/mL — well above the high-risk sepsis threshold of 2 ng/mL

• Leucopenia — low white blood cell count, indicating the immune system is severely compromised and unable to fight infection effectively

Current Treatment Requirements

• Mechanical ventilation — the baby cannot breathe independently; a ventilator is breathing for him around the clock

• Surfactant therapy — medication administered directly into the lungs to treat RDS and help the collapsed air sacs stay open between breaths

• IV antibiotics — intensive antibiotic treatment targeting the severe bacterial infection driving the septic shock

• Inotropic support — medications to support heart function and stabilise blood pressure as the body fights circulatory failure from sepsis

• Parenteral nutrition — nutrients delivered intravenously as the gut is too immature to absorb any oral or tube feeds

• Continuous monitoring of oxygen, heart rate, blood pressure, infection markers, and temperature — every hour, without interruption

Why This Is Critical

A PCT of 11.73 ng/mL in a newborn is a medical emergency. Above 2 ng/mL is classified as high risk for sepsis — at 11.73, this baby's body is in the grip of a severe systemic bacterial infection attacking multiple organ systems simultaneously. Combined with RDS and an immune system that has almost no defences, every hour of uninterrupted intensive care is the difference between survival and deterioration.

The ventilator is not a temporary measure — it is currently doing the work his lungs cannot. Any interruption in care, any delay in treatment, any financial gap that prevents the hospital from continuing — carries consequences that cannot be undone.

Aapsa has not held her baby since the day he was born. She sits by the incubator, watches the machines, and waits. Sameer goes to construction sites when work is available and sends whatever he earns — knowing it will never be enough, but sending it anyway.

Your donation — whatever you can give — goes directly toward the ventilator keeping this baby breathing, the antibiotics fighting the infection in his blood, and the three weeks of intensive care that stand between him and the chance to finally be held by his mother.

He is just days old. He has not been held yet. He is fighting for his life on ₹3,000 a month of family income.