▲ Severance Children's Hospital holds a special sports day for extremely low birth weight premature infants
Children who were born with extremely low birth weights of less than 1.5 kilograms have left the neonatal intensive care unit incubators and gathered on a sports field.
The children, who were fighting at the threshold of life and death alongside medical staff just a few years ago, can now run with ease.
Severance Hospital announced that it held a special sports day on October 17 at the Arts and Physical Education Hall of Myongji College in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, bringing together children who were treated after being born weighing less than 1.5 kg, along with their families and medical staff.
Children born before 37 weeks of pregnancy are typically called premature babies, but the children participating in this sports day came into the world weeks earlier than that, weighing less than 1.5 kg.
Premature babies require intensive care because various organs, such as their lungs and digestive systems, are not fully matured, making it difficult for them to breathe on their own or feed.
Being discharged from the hospital is not the end, as their growth and development must be monitored for at least several years.
Four-year-olds Sion and Haon, who participated in the sports day, were born with extremely low birth weights, but through the intensive care of medical staff and the dedicated nurturing of their parents, they have grown up more bravely than anyone else.
The children's mother, Moon Ye-seul, gave birth to triplets at 7 months of pregnancy, specifically at 27 weeks and 3 days, and the smallest child weighed only 580 grams.
The children's condition was extremely critical to the point where one of them passed away; their lungs were not fully developed and their sucking reflex was weak, requiring them to be fed through a nasal tube for a long time.
Thankfully, the remaining two children kept up their strength, and after receiving treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit for five months, Sion and Haon returned healthy into the arms of their mother and father.
Having now recovered their health, they attend daycare like any other children.
Moon said, "I can never forget the moment when Sion and Haon took out their nasal tubes and picked up and ate snacks."
She shared that when the children went up on stage to sing at their daycare talent show, she secretly wiped away tears as scenes of them in incubators and their journey of growth flashed through her mind.
Eun Ho-seon, head of the Department of Neonatology at Severance Children's Hospital, noted that she encounters parents every day who blame themselves, wondering if their children's illness is their fault, while expressing her deep gratitude to the parents who trusted the medical staff through difficult times and to the children who gathered their strength.
(Photo provided by Severance Hospital, Yonhap News)
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