A LITTLE lady, who fought to be born.photo: SME - Ján Krošlák
Banská Bystrica
410-gram baby girl born
A TEAM of doctors at Banská Bystrica's Roosevelt hospital saved a baby girl who was born weighing only 410 grams and lost another 40 grams after the birth.
On average, a baby born in the 40th week of pregnancy is around three kilograms. The baby girl, who was not named, was born before the 24th week of pregnancy.
"On world scale it is unusual that babies born weighing less than half a kilogram survive," Juraj Zbojan, head of the maternity ward, told the SME daily.
The baby girl who will soon be two months old, is now twice as heavy as she was at her birth. The baby was born in the town of Revúca and was not born in a hospital. Shortly after she was born she was taken to the intensive care unit of Roosevelt hospital.
"The baby is special. She has an amazing will to live. She survived on our standard care and now she is doing relatively well," Zbojan said.
According to Zbojan, progress in neonatology has enabled to push the limits of survival for babies back to the 24th or 23rd week of pregnancy, although it is rather rare that such babies survive without major damage to their health.
The Roosevelt hospital takes care of around 60 - 70 babies who are born with low or extremely low weight every year. The mortality rate for babies weighing one to one-and-a-half kilograms at birth is nearly zero, while babies that weigh under one kilogram at birth have a 30 percent mortality rate.
According to SME, around 500 babies under 1.5 kilograms are born a year in Slovakia, of which around half are lighter than one kilo. The mortality rate among these babies is around 40 percent, comparable to the European average.
Strážske, Štítnik
Police find old ammunition
KOŠICE police recently reported finding two ammunition relics made in World War II and 1973, respectively.
According to the state-run news agency TASR, a man found a 1973 quick-firing cannon cartridge in the eastern Slovak village of Strážske, in the Michalovce district. The cartridge was 430 millimetres long and 30 millimetres in diameter.
A man who was working in his garden found a 152-caliber artillery grenade from World War II in the southeastern town of Štítnik.
In both cases the ammunition was destroyed by pyro-technicians, Košice Police Spokeswoman Jana Demjanovičová told TASR.
Košice
Eight tons of iron stolen
IN ONE weekend, an unknown thief stole a total of eight tons of various iron objects from a farm in the eastern Slovak village of Trstená and Hornádom.
According to the state-run news agency TASR, the thief stole iron that was lying unguarded on the farm.
Košice Police Spokesperson Jana Demjanovičová said that the owner of the iron, an unnamed private businessman, lost Sk150,000 (€3,760) as a result of the crime.
Sereď
Marijuana found in freezer
PATRIK V, 21, from the southern Slovak town of Sereď was charged with illegal possession of drugs after police found one kilogram of marijuana in his freezer.
According to the private news agency SITA, Patrik V grew the plant in his backyard behind a garage. Police found four marijuana plants there.
Trnava Police Spokesman Martin Korch told SITA that Patrik V faced two to eight years in jail if convicted.
Nižný Medzev
55 protected trees damaged
AN UNKNOWN perpetrator damaged 55 trees on the Mariánske Square of the eastern Slovak town of Nižný Medzev, the state-run TASR news agency wrote.
The trees were 50 to 60 years old and were growing in a protected environmental zone. The damage amounts to Sk5.5 million (€138,000).
Police have already begun investigations in the case under charges of breaching the protection code of plants and animals.
RASPBERRY picker mauled by bear.photo: SME - Ján Krošlák
Valaská
Woman survives bear attack
AN AGGRESSIVE mother bear, accompanied by her cubs, attacked a woman who was picking wild berries in the forest.
Immediately after the attack, the woman, referred to only as Katarína by the SME daily, was taken to hospital with arm and leg injuries.
"I was picking raspberries and next to me there were two other women singing songs. Suddenly all was quiet, I turned around and there was a big bear standing on its hind legs about two metres away from me. It roared and attacked, I was screaming. Then I spotted one cub and after that, I remember nothing," Katarína, 47, said to SME.
Katarína says that she will never go picking berries in the forest again.
When Katarína regained her senses after the initial shock of the attack, the bear was gone. Hurt and bloody, Katarína tried to run away from the spot before she realised that she had a mobile phone and could ring for help.
"The patient was brought to us with wounds on her arm and leg. I think that she did quite well [considering the danger of the attack]," surgeon Anton Pekarovič from the hospital in Brezno said to SME.
It is estimated that bears in Slovakia commit 400 - 1,000 attacks on people a year. According to experts there are 700 - 800 bears in Slovak forests.
Skalica
NHL player beaten in bar
ŽIGMUND Pálffy, 31, the Los Angeles Kings forward, got into a brawl in a bar in the western Slovak town of Skalica, the Nový Čas daily wrote.
According to the daily, Pállfy, whom fans and friends call Žigo, provoked one guest in the Hotr bar and was punched in the face. The incident took place on July 31, leaving the national hockey star with a black swollen eye.
"It happened very fast. In the beginning I did not know who was fighting about what and I did not pay attention to it either. But then I recognized Žigo's voice," said one guest. It is believed that one of Žigo's friends stopped the brawl thereby preventing a major fight.
The employees of the bar would not say anything about the incident.
Bratislava
Billboards to cut car accidents
BRATISLAVA police are using a new tool to try to fight car accidents - billboards telling drivers to be careful on the road.
In eight Bratislava districts, 50 billboards reading, "live through the summer without accidents" were put up.
Along with traditional guardrails, the billboards are part of a project called Safe Summer.
"This year police in Bratislava have registered around 38 car accidents a day," Silvia Miháliková, the district police spokeswoman, told the Pravda daily.
In the first six months of the year, police in Bratislava registered more than 7,000 car accidents in which 30 people died - 16 of whom were pedestrians. As many as 465 people were lightly injured in the accidents and 107 suffered injuries with permanent consequences.
"These are alarming figures, and they are many times higher than the data from previous years," said Miháliková.
Various sponsors provided money for the production and distribution of the billboards, said Miháliková.
