LITTLE ice baby is one really COOL babe

The two-month-old baby was saved by quick-thinking doctors and a new treatment involving cold water after her brain was starved of oxygen during birth. And now the little baby is back home with amazed mum and dad. The baby girl was born two weeks early with perinatal asphyxia - an oxygen shortage caused by a blocked blood supply from her mum.

Her heartbeat was so slow, nurses couldn't hear it at first. "A consultant said her chances were slim and if she lived it was 99 per cent certain she'd have brain damage," says her father. Doctors decided the baby had one chance - a cooling technique pioneered at a Hospital in Southampton. It involves swaddling perinatal asphyxia babies in cold water wraps to slow their metabolism to the point of hypothermia - reducing damage to the inflamed brain and helping it recover. But it only works within the first six hours of life - so she was rushed the 12 miles to the hospital. There she was encased for three days in the plastic wraps which kept her at 33.5°C - 3.5 lower than normal body temperature. She was kept on a ventilator and given morphine and blood to keep her going before she was gradually warmed up again.

She then responded well to tests and doctors have told her parents, there is no sign yet of any brain damage. Daddy said: "It's incredible. She's really alert and makes a lot of noise. All the staff who looked after her deserve so much credit." A hospital spokesperson commented: "Perinatal asphyxia is a leading cause of neonatal deaths - but we are seeing evidence that shows baby cooling limits brain injury."

1. Comprehension exercises

1.a. According to the text

• Consultants thought the baby would die.
• Consultants thought the baby would have severe brain damage.
• Consultants thought the baby had very few chances to survive and if so, she would suffer brain damage.

1.b. According to the text

• only works with babies under 3 days old.
• only works with babies under 35.5ºc
• is a pioneering technique.

1.c. The baby was born a fortnight after her mummy expected her.

(Answer "True" or "False" AND write the sentence supporting this idea)

• FALSE: The baby was born two weeks early with perinatal asphyxia

1.d. When she was born, the baby didn't have pulse.

(Answer "True" or "False" AND write the sentence supporting this idea)

• FALSE: Her heartbeat was so slow, that nurses couldn´t hear it at first

2. Do the following grammar exercises according to the instructions given

2.a. Write the following question in reported speech

Father to the doctors: Will my babe survive?

• The father asked the doctors if his babe would survive.

2.b. Fill in the blanks with the right phrasal verb

Lucy went to the train station to say good-bye to Michael.

• Lucy saw Michael off at the train station.

2.c. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one

You didn't come to my birthday party, which was a pity.

• I wish you had come to my birthday party.

2.d. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one

She attended my class although the weather was really bad.

• In spite of the weather she attended to my class.

3. Identify ONLY FOUR words from their definitions 

• Deprive of food or of a necessity that causes suffering: starve
• Voice, representative: spokesperson
• Covered or protected with or as if with a case: encased
• Harm: damage
• Occurring during the period around birth (5 months before and 1 month after): perinatal
• A single complete pulsation, pulse: heartbeat

+EXÁMENES RESUELTOS