Samson Nivins

  Extremely preterm birth is one of the greatest challenges in neonatal health today. Every year, thousands of families face the uncertainty of seeing their tiny newborns survive against the odds, knowing that survival is just the first step in a long journey.   A recent population-based study from Sweden led by Aden et al 2025 paints a striking picture, over the past two decades, survival rates for extremely preterm infants have improved a triumph of modern perinatal care. But despite this progress, neurodevelopmental outcomes , such as cognitive and motor function, have not improved in the same way (https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2024-327919). This gap, often described as a ‘ BLACK BOX ’, leaves clinicians and researchers puzzled. Why does survival improve, but development remains stubbornly plateaued? The answer is complex. Biological vulnerability e.g., the immaturity of organs, underdeveloped neural networks, plays a central role, but it is not the whole story. En...

  Significance of Pentecost Christmas is celebrated as the birth of ‘Jesus’, the son of God; correspondingly, Pentecost is celebrated as the birth of the ‘Holy Spirit’. The event of Pentecost is considered as a historical day amongst Christians, where the descent or outpouring of the Holy Spirt upon the apostles and disciples of Jesus. Correspondence with the old testament: The Feast of Weeks is considered the second major festival of the Israelite liturgical calendar. It begins from the day after Passover, where the Israelites counted forty-nine days, then commenced celebrating the Feast of Weeks on the following day (ref: Lev 23; Deut 16). As it falls on the fiftieth day after Passover, it was also called “Pentecost”, i.e., “fiftieth” (ref: Acts 2; 1 Cor 16). Here I describe in brief the importance of Pentecost as ‘Church’ in todays’ scenario. 1.       Transformation: We all need to allow the ‘Holy Spirit’ to write God's law in our lives; it begi...

How to Avoid the Titanic Mistake James Cameron, director of the movie Titanic, describes the Titanic as a ‘metaphor’ of life: ‘We are all living on… [the] Titanic.’ When the Titanic set sail in 1912, it was declared to be ‘unsinkable’ because it was constructed using new technology. The ship’s hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Up to four of these compartments could be damaged or even flooded, and still, the ship would float. Tragically, the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 at 2.20 am. 1,513 people lost their lives. At the time, it was thought that five of its watertight compartments had been ruptured in a collision with an iceberg. However, on 1 September 1985, when the wreck of the Titanic was found lying upright on the ocean floor, there was no sign of the long gash previously thought to have been ripped in the ship’s hull. What they discovered was that damage to one compartment affected all the rest. Many people make the Titanic mistake. They think they...

Hi all, I just thought I would share an incident which touched me. I kept a title for the write up as “Never Compromise-Act on it”. This is a true story that happened on 12th July 2020. I saw a new family entering our Church (Pacifica I think), during our choir rehearsal for the service. The lady leads the whole family, the order as follows: 3 small kids less than 5 to 6 years, and her husband, and they came and sat in the 3rd row. I was thinking, we got one more family added to our church (lol, just kidding). As the service started, lots of hymns were sung according to our Methodist tradition. But the major blow which struck me was during announcements (its called community notice, as per Kiwi culture). One of the members (Tim) of our congregation introduced the new family (Samantha called as ‘Sam’) and welcomed, and stated that she was completely blind, and a resource person in the Children’s’ program, happened one day earlier. This took a ‘What’, and the whole time thinking about ...

An apple can be compared to a human brain. If you zoom the apple, very carefully, you will observe that the apple is getting near to the expiry date (older & rotten). Similarly, you can compare with an aged brain (beyond a threshold +65), where you would see shrinkage in the brain with an intrinsic curvature (As you see in the apple). Lol. Don't think, I am funny, but that's the fact. Be happy!! Weekend vibes. ☕☕☕