Orphaned by an airstrike and saved from her dead mother’s womb, baby Sabreen has died
Sabreen Alrouh Jouda was born an orphan in Gaza after her mother died in an Israeli airstrike. A posthumous c-section rescued her from her mother’s body.
Sabreen Alrouh Joudeh was born an orphan. And her life, however hopeful, has proved brief.
During a barrage of intense Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah this weekend, one blast hit the family home into which Sabreen would have been welcomed, according to local health officials, hospital staff and family members. The blast killed her mother, Sabreen Sakani — who was 30 weeks pregnant with her at the time — as well as her father, Shukri Joudeh, and her 3-year-old sister she never got to meet, Malak.
The family was declared dead at the city’s Kuwaiti Hospital on Saturday, but NBC News’ cameras captured the moment doctors were able to perform a posthumous cesarean section and rescue Sabreen from her mother’s lifeless body.
Limp and lifeless at first, the vernix-covered newborn weighing just over 3 pounds was taken in a golden fabric blanket and rushed to an upstairs room. There, doctors tried for more than two minutes to resuscitate her by pumping air into her mouth and tapping her chest. They were finally, somehow, successful.
Sabreen Joudeh was delivered prematurely after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike. Mohammad Jahjouh / APFrom there, she was immediately rushed by ambulance through the night to an intensive care unit incubator at the nearby Emirati Hospital, audibly whimpering on arrival. It was there that her paternal grandmother and uncle paid her an emotional visit, accompanied by NBC News, on Monday.
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