Is there a doctor on the plane? In flight over the Atlantic, a New York doctor saved the life of a two-year-old child who suffered from asthma attack and whose parents had left pumps and emergency medication in checked baggage. Doctor Khurshid Guru, director of the department of robotic surgery at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (New York, United States), alerted by the baby’s cries and the sound of his jerky breathing, quickly intervenes. “We had been in the air for three or four hours. The child had a cold because of the altitude, his condition quickly deteriorated“he explained to ABC News.
A problem then arises: the emergency inhalers on board the plane are not suitable for such young children. Doctor Guru then made a custom-made inner tube himself, consisting of an empty plastic water bottle, a plastic cup and an oxygen mask. Thirty minutes later, the asthma attack stops and the child is breathing normally again. “When the plane landed I saw him playing with his mother“the doctor also told ABC News.
This event highlights the importance of having always at hand emergency asthma treatment, for your children as well as for yourself. Indeed, an asthma attack corresponds to a bronchial obstruction. the oxygen level then gradually decreases, and can cause suffocation of the patient. Asthma is thus responsible for more than 2,000 deaths each year in France.
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