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Subtitles to the film on Kerstin Korwin:

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If a baby is born with thrombocytopenia, it often is too late to save its life. Thrombocytopenia means lack of platelets. It can cause brain bleeding, handicaps or death. It is not necessarily so that a baby is born with this disease. Modern transfusion medicine enables treatment of the disease in the womb. But most people do not know it.

Little Hannah-Marie - for a long time her life was in danger. In the womb she suffered from lack of blood platelets - an incompatibility between mother and child, apt to cause severe brain-bleeding, a dreadful complication, about which the nurse Kerstin Korwin had painful experiences before. Her long suffering led her to the transfusion center of the university clinics of Kiel. Blood tests confirmed her suspicion: lack of platelets. Before, no doctor had warned her although her medical history was full of alarming hints. Daughter Lara was healthy at birth. Subsequently a twin-pregnancy began.

“The first twin died in week 16, we thought we could save the life of the second twin. It died in week 28."

The next heavy blow came with the next pregnancy. Jesper-Thore, 2 years old, is handicapped since birth: the cause is a bleeding in the brain which resulted in a hydrocephalus. Nobody else but the parents searched for the cause of the bleeding.

"Yes, already after the death of the twins nobody did anything. Also after the birth of my son nobody did anything. We met the problem when the term thrombocytopenia was dropped. Subsequently, we began to research thoroughly."

Using the internet they found the transfusion center Kiel and the expert Dr. Esther Witzleben-Schürholz.

"It is our great wish that we prevent brain-bleedings and detrimental sequelae, by diagnosing the disease in time and thus treating it in time. This can be done."

A simple platelet test revealed the lack of platelets - a disease which is relatively frequent, but is diagnosed rarely. The transfusion center Kiel makes an effort to inform people and calls for platelet counting as a routine test, at least for the newborn.

Prof. Ulrich Gembruch is director of the prenatal center of the University Lübeck. He is treating the lack of platelets already in the womb, as the only expert in northern Germany.

"Here, we see such a blood transfusion. Here, we see the placenta, and here is the umbilical cord. Here the needle is approaching. The white line is the needle. It is slowly moved towards and into the umbilical cord, watching thoroughly. Now, the needle is inside the umbilical vein. We directly inject the platelets into the umbilical vein. And here you can see bubbles. That is the reaction of injected platelets, streaming in the vein."

The appropriate blood donor had to give blood once a week. That often little Hannah-Marie needed new compatible blood platelets. There are only 50 % of these children who experience complications. Therefore, the effort is worth-while.

“Subsequently, as a rule, the child will be completely healthy, because after cutting the umbilical cord the antibodies of the mother will no longer be transferred to the child. There, the antibodies will decay after a while. And then, the child will be completely healthy."