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More dragon babies, more newborn patients

More dragon babies, more newborn patients

Tuesday, October 02, 2012, 11:23 GMT+7

Women joining in the race to produce a dragon son in what Chinese zodiac calls the Year of the Dragon may have to wait at least a decade to see if their children share any good attributes of the powerful and royal animal in Asian tradition.

Hospitals overloaded in dragon baby boom But the side effect of this ‘dragon’ baby boom won’t take that long to be seen, as the immediate consequence is that the number of child patients will soar along with the increasing number of newborns this year. 2012 is considered the most auspicious for births, as the dragon is a symbol of power and royalty in Asian countries, and people, especially men, born this year are believed to carry its attributes such as strength, luck, wisdom, and nobility. Obstetrics hospitals and clinics across Ho Chi Minh City are now overloaded with pregnant women expecting a dragon child, while their pediatric counterparts too are packed with newborn patients due to the unexpected increases.No beds for the ‘dragons’ At the Neonatology Division of the Pediatrics Hospitals 1 these days, every room, from emergency aid to the sickrooms, is full of newborn patients. At the doorway of the S304 room, Ha Thi Huong, 20, is taking care of her 18-day-old baby. Huong says the child has just undergone a small intestine operation, and the mother and son have been resting in the corridor over the last two days. “It is because the hospital is too crowded, and beds have fallen short of supply,” explains Nguyen Thi Be, 47, who is sitting next to Huong and has a 20-day-old grandson who is suffering from pneumonia. Elsewhere, inside the sickrooms, the atmosphere is filled with crying babies and crowds traveling to and fro to care for their relatives. Here, three to four newborns have to share a bed, says Nguyen Thi Thuy Van, a 22-year-old mother. “Things get worse at night, when one baby crying will startle the others, and then they will all cry,” she adds. The number of newborns hospitalized has set a new record at Pediatrics Hospitals 1, according to Neonatology Division chief Nguyen Kien Mau. An average of 180 newborns was admitted to the hospital in June, and the figure rose dramatically to 212 in August, the doctor says. “Particularly, the hospital received a record 275 kids on September 24,” he says, adding that the patients are more than double the number of beds the division can afford. “Even in the emergency aid room the newborns have to share beds with each other,” he admits. Doctor Mau says if the number of newborn patients keeps soaring, it will affect the treatment quality. “While the lack of equipment can be solved, we cannot ease the bed shortage as there are no spaces left to add more beds,” he laments. “Even the corridors are now used to make room for the patients and their mothers.”

Tuoi Tre

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