Liquid Breathing Environment

I read an interesting article in Reader's Digest this morning as I was trying to wake up. It dealt with a mother who was a neonatal nurse who, herself, gave birth when she was 5 months along. One of the problems that threatens the survival of preemies is the fact that their lungs are not mature enough to breathe air, so they have risks for all sorts of things like blindness and stroke, etc.

Apparently, a doctor has developed a liquid breathing environment that mimics amniotic fluid, but is able to get oxygen into the babies bloodstream without the baby having to breathe air. They said if you could fill up a swimming pool with this stuff, you could breathe underwater. I know! Freaky!

Well, the mother in the story made the tough choice to use this experimental treatment for her daughter and it worked! Her daughter is a completely normal 12 year old today.

Unfortunately, no one is willing to fund this treatment. Maybe we should write to our Congressman and suggest that they throw some of the money they are sending to stem cell research toward this, highly effective treatment for preemies. Think of all the money they would save on caring for disabled children! It almost seems criminal not to support this research when we have good reason to believe that it not only can save lives, it can actually prevent brain damage.