6-day-old Parvathi becomes the youngest Indian rescued from Yemen

KOCHI: Parvathi is just six days old and she doesn't know what a bloody, debilitating war has done to the country she was born in. On Friday , though, she was out of it, becoming the youngest Indian to be evacuated from Yemen. Battling jaundice and severe respiratory problems, the infant was flown out from battle-scarred Sana'a to Djibouti in an Air India flight.From there, she was flown to Kochi in an IAF C 17. Doctors in India, many of them overwhelmed at what they witnessed, said it was nothing short of a miracle. Kept in an incubator, the baby's condition throughout the journey was supervised by Dr Uma Nambiar, a doctor working in Djibouti for the last two years and who is now an adviser to the ministry of health in that country .

“I came along with the baby to ensure that the medical transfer happened correctly ,“ she said, explaining why she made the trip to India along with the little girl. The infant is now at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi, where her progress is being monitored round the clock.

Parvathi was born in Sana'a prematurely . Her mother Raji Raju, working as a nurse in Amran, was eight months pregnant and waiting to be evacuated to India with her husband when the child was delivered in conditions that were, from all accounts, unimaginable. Recalling those harrowing days before she and her daughter eventually managed to board the IAF plane to Kochi, Raji Raju said, “Suddenly I developed abdominal pain and doctors said that I would deliver preterm. Since we had nurse friends in other hospitals, we called up to inquire about an incubator. Only one hospital had one free. Others were near vulnerable spots where there was heavy fighting.“ It was no less tense in the flight. Initially they were told that since the baby was a neonate (less than four weeks old), they could sit in the front row. “But when people started coming in, some of the staff sent us back. Later, the air hostess on realising that the baby was pre-term asked us to go once again to the front,“ said Susha Rani, Raji's sister-in-law and a teacher in Yemen Modern School in Sanaa.

Baby Parvathi has taken the journey from hell to her hometown well. “She is doing fine,“ said Dr Jayasree, neonatal specialist at AIIMS. The baby's father, Sash Kumar, is yet to return to Kerala, but last they heard he was on his way to Djibouti. Soon he will reach Kochi to be with his bundle of joy.