24.12.2025

Just a few months ago, newborns with severe congenital pathologies had to be urgently transported from Atyrau region to other medical centers and regions of the country for surgical interventions. For these infants, especially premature babies with critically low birth weight, this meant a high, and sometimes even fatal, risk. Today, the situation has changed: at the Atyrau Regional Perinatal Center, operations on newborns are performed in the first hours of life – without long waiting and dangerous transportation.

The department was opened thanks to the partnership between the government, AYALA Charity Foundation, and Tengizchevroil company which supported outfitting of the neonatal operating room with modern equipment.

When help gives a chance at life

The neonatal surgery department was officially opened in October 2025. However, the first surgeries were performed here already in August, immediately after completion of renovations and installation of the equipment. From September to December, doctors have already successfully performed eight surgeries in the department, including cardiac surgeries on very premature infants.

— Without the Neonatal Surgery Department, we simply wouldn’t have been able to save many of these babies, — Meruert Aydarkhanova, Director of the Atyrau Regional Perinatal Center, says. «Previously, the only option was transportation, either to the Regional Children’s Hospital in Atyrau or to the capital. In such situations, every hour was critical. Now we operate on newborns on-site, in our center, and thus we gain the most precious thing — time. And in neonatal surgery, time often determines the outcome: life or irreversible complications.

Meruert Sapargaliyevna believes that the new equipment has allowed not only increasing the efficiency of surgeries but has also expanded their scope to include interventions in the fields of neonatal cardiology and neurosurgery.

— The opening of the Neonatal Surgery Department has been an important step for further development and improvement of the entire pediatric healthcare system in Atyrau region. In our neonatal operating room, the surgeons have everything necessary to perform highly complex surgeries, including treating brain hematomas in newborns. We can operate on a child in an emergency situation having the decision in just half a day. Without the need for transportation, children recover faster and have a more chances for a higher quality of life in the future. Furthermore, specialized wards for resuscitation, stabilization, and intensive care ensure significantly faster recovery for children after surgeries, — the Director of the Atyrau Regional Perinatal Center emphasizes.

For parents, such situations are always a severe stress: just yesterday they were preparing for discharge, and today every hour counts. The possibility of receiving surgical care here, in their hometown, reduces that anxious tension and gives them strengths to support their child in the most critical moment.

Modern technology – to help doctors

The neonatal operating room is equipped with an anesthesia and ventilation machine for newborns, a resuscitation table, and a safe X-ray unit delivered directly from a factory in Italy. The department was fully renovated using the funds from the state budget, including installation of special air purification and ventilation system, and equipment of two wards for stabilizing small patients. Everything is adapted to work even with premature infants weighing from 600 grams.

This is what enabled doctors to successfully operate on three prematurely born infants with a dangerous heart pathology — a hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus, which, without surgical intervention, could have led to severe complications, including death of the newborns.

— We were able not only to perform these surgeries. The most important thing is that we provided them with proper care after the intervention, — explains Gulmira Abikeeva, Deputy Director of the Atyrau Regional Perinatal Center for Neonatology.

— At the Regional Children’s Hospital, operated newborns were together with children up to 18 years old. In our center, they are cared for in special, fully adapted resuscitation, stabilization, and intensive care units designed specifically for their vital needs. This fundamentally changes the prognosis for their health. Furthermore, for the successful outcome of surgeries in newborns, the work of an anesthesiologist-resuscitator is crucial. Our perinatal center has a professional of the highest level — Alisher Mirabdullayevich Abatov. He has excellent knowledge of the specifics of preoperative preparation and all resuscitation procedures for newborn infants, including low-birth-weight and premature babies.

Surgery on the edge of possibility

Neonatal surgery is always the finest work performed on the edge of possibility. At the Regional Perinatal Center, six neonatologists work in the department.

— In our center, surgeries on newborns were performed from 2011 to 2018. During that period, emergency surgeries took place right in the delivery room, while other cases were referred to the Regional Children’s Hospital or transported by air ambulance to Astana, — says Gulmira Abikeeva.

But no matter how hard doctors try to respond promptly, the moment of transportation is always of critical importance.

— For example, if we need air ambulance transport, it requires 2 to 4 days to prepare all the documents and await the aircraft. When premature low-birth-weight infants are born, they need to be transported only in special incubators, and they are highly susceptible to various infections, — Gulmira Merkhatovna explains. — Now, our department accepts newborn infants from across the entire region — from the city maternity hospital, from towns and villages, and following emergency home deliveries. And the surgeries are performed right here, in our perinatal center, by experienced surgeons from the Regional Children’s Hospital under the guidance of the Head of the Surgery Department, Gulmira Mergaziyeva. In cases of neonatal cardiac pathologies, surgeons from Aktobe come here to assist.

With their participation, three successful heart surgeries have already been performed, one of which was on a premature infant weighing only 600 grams. This baby is now actively growing in an incubator and gaining strength: its weight has already nearly doubled, which is a critically important indicator for premature infants.

According to Meruert Aydarkhanova, Director of the Regional Perinatal Center, the Neonatal Surgery Department is ready to admit over 30 patients per year, and in the future, aims to expand the scope of interventions and strengthen collaboration with neonatal surgeons from other regions.

Investments that save lives

Doctors emphasize: neonatal surgery is not about isolated cases, but meticulous work where experience, teamwork, and conditions are crucial. All these have been successfully brought together in the Neonatal Surgery Department at the Regional Perinatal Center.

The project has become part of a large social investment program implemented by the Tengizchevroil company in Atyrau region. For AYALA Charity Foundation, it is a continuation of years of systematic work for assisting the state in reducing infant mortality in Kazakhstan.

— Our approach consists of providing perinatal centers with solutions that will work for decades, — Aidan Suleimenova, Founder and President of AYALA Charity Foundation, emphasizes. — When a region has strong doctors but lacks advanced medical equipment, we understand that this is where our assistance will be most valuable. Thanks to the support of Tengizchevroil, the Atyrau Regional Perinatal Center now has everything necessary to save children in the first days of their lives. We are greatly inspired by the results of this project, which have again proven the importance of partnership: the state carries out renovations and provides the infrastructure, our esteemed partner allocates funds for high-tech equipment, and our Foundation, through an effective charity model, helps doctors launch a new medical department.

For the residents of Atyrau region, opening of the Neonatal Surgery Department means one thing: in the most critical situations, newborns are now provided with care here and immediately — without the risks associated with transportation and with involvement of a trained team of doctors. This gives all parents confidence that highly qualified medicine is always accessible and nearby — in those very first hours when the future life of their child is determined.