BiographyGunabalan was born at full term at 40 weeks gestation. He was induced and was eventually born by forceps delivery. His birth weight was 3.1kgs. Although he did cry this was a weak cry. He was on the post-natal ward with mum and at this stage did not have any special care. When the neonatologist came to carry out the baby checks a few hours later, they were told that all was normal.
However, the following day around 8 to 9pm he was noted to have some jerking movements and concerns were raised about this. He was taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and he had further seizure activity, and hence was given medication for this. They managed to control the seizures and give him a maintenance dose and he was therefore discharged after 3 to 4 days. He was however, noted to always have a very weak suck and did not manage to suck at either the breast or the bottle and therefore he was given expressed breast milk via a cup. It was also noted around this time that he suffered uncontrollable crying mainly at night, but during the day he was always alert and active and the seizures seemed to be better controlled. Due to concerns regarding excessive crying, he had a cranial ultrasound scan which showed hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy, ( Stage 2)
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