Content courtesy of Ivanhoe

More than half-a-million babies are born too early in the United States every year. It takes an emotional toll on parents and a financial toll on the health care system. It can cost up to $500,000 to keep just one premature baby alive. Now, a less expensive drug used in adults is helping some of the smallest newborns beat infection and win the fight for survival.

If you follow the statistics, little Becca Hill isn't supposed to be at home.

"We had to make a plan with the anesthesiologist," Becca's mother Nancy explained to Ivanhoe. "How can we have her without putting me totally under in case she only lives a few minutes, so I can be awake for those few minutes."

Born more than two months early, Becca weighed just 13 ounces -- less than an average size apple. So far, she has beaten the odds, because she beat the risk of infection. Nearly 30-percent of the smallest premature babies contract infections caused by a fungus. It's on their skin after birth and when plastic life support tubes are inserted, the fungus enters their bodies. More than 70-percent of babies who develop the infection will die or suffer permanent brain damage.

"The smaller the baby and the earlier they acquire the infection, the higher the risk for them to die from the infection," Hendrik Weitkamp, M.D., a pediatrician at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., told Ivanhoe.

A clinical trial revealed a drug -- commonly given to transplant patients -- also helps these tiny babies. Small doses of fluconazole during the first six weeks of life prevented infections in all the babies tested.

"Our fungal rates were higher prior to the protocol and now we're more than 50-percent lower," Dr. Weitkamp explained.

"Infection will probably continue to be her biggest risk from here on out," Nancy said.

The drug helped Becca stay healthy enough to get off the ventilator.

"I'm so proud of her now just for breathing that when she graduates from college or becomes an adult, I don't know what I'll do," Nancy exclaimed. "I'll just burst!"

Becca is a small survivor who is winning the fight of her life.

Doctors are monitoring this protocol carefully to make sure there aren't any infections that are resistant to the drug.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Division of Neonatology
(615) 936-1000
http://www.vanderbiltchildrens.com/interior.php?mid=208