Newborn infected with Cov in womb, saved at city hosp

Newborn infected with Cov in womb, saved at city hosp

Prithvijit.Mitra@timesofindia.com 07.09.2026

Kolkata: The pandemic may have ended four years ago, but coronavirus continues to throw up an occasional scare. Last week, a newborn, who contracted the virus in her mother’s womb, was saved from the jaws of death at a city pvt hospital. Numerous such cases were reported during the height of the pandemic between 2020 and 2022. 

While the baby had life-threatening symptoms, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in neonates (MIS-N) ‘associated with peri-natal SARS Covid infection’ and sepsis leading to severe breathing distress, irregular heart beats and fluctuating blood pressure, her mother had no symptoms that prevented doctors from suspecting Covid. The infant had to be put on ventilation but was eventually diagnosed and saved by using Gamma Globulin, a blood protein that acts as antibodies against viruses and bacteria. Born on Aug 24 at Belle Vue Clinic to Arpita Santra, the baby girl developed a severe breathing distress soon after birth. Symptoms started multiplying and she was soon found to have sepsis, which is an extremely toxic response of the body to an infection. But doctors could not gauge the trigger. The newborn was first put on oxygen and as her condition worsened, she was shifted to ventilation. 

“We decided to conduct a pro-BNP test to help gauge the infection. It detected MIS-N and sepsis which pointed at Covid. Both conditions were life-threatening and the symptoms were getting severe by the hour. But since the Covid test result could not be obtained before five days, we decided to go ahead with treatment,” said paediatrician Santanu Ray, who led the treatment at Belle Vue. A high pro-BNP test result indicates that the heart muscles are stretched, overworked or under extra pressure. When the heart chambers experience increased volume or pressure, they release this protein into the bloodstream to help regulate fluid balance and blood pressure. “MIS-N has a mortality rate of 50%. Since her other parameters were deteriorating fast, we had to be quick. While MIS-N increases the risk of a heart failure, she also had sepsis. We decided to administer Gamma protein which is an effective method to counter severe infection and its symptoms,” added Ray. It helped counter the symptoms and put the baby on a recovery path. “By the time Covid was confirmed on the fifth day, she had started showing signs of improvement. While the worst period was over, she was kept under screening for several more days till she could be weaned out of oxygen support completely,” said Ray