Docs saved baby using medically-induced hypothermia
A baby who didn't breathe for 17 minutes was saved after being cooled for three days, reported The Daily Mail.
When she was born, Sophie Fleet swallowed fluids which caused a blockage in her airways and starved her brain of oxygen.
Doctors treated her using medically-induced hypothermia, lowering her body temperature from the normal 37°C to 33.5°C for three days by putting Sophie into a special 'fridge' suit pumped with water to keep her body cool, reported The Daily Mail.This reduced pressure on Sophie's brain, thereby preventing further brain damage. She could go home with her parents nine days later, and only sustained mild brain damage.
Sophie's parents know that the outcome could have been much worse – their daughter could have suffered severe brain damage – without the hypothermia, reported The Daily Mail.
Chilling you down
Studies suggest that therapeutic hypothermia can also be used to deal with heart attacks, strokes, spinal cord injury and neurological fever, according to studies published in The Medical Journal of Australia, Medical Journal of Australia, U.S. National Library of Medicine and MediVance respectively.
The cost of these treatments are comparable to other more commonly used methods, says an article in MedPage Today. According to the Southern Medical Journal, such treatments may not be technically difficult to implement at a wider community level. This may mean that even smaller hospitals may be able to offer therapeutic hypothermia to patients as a treatment option.
There are several ways of inducing therapeutic hypothermia.
In one method, cooling catheters inserted into the vein, which circulate cooled saline solution, can be used. Alternatively, less invasive options, such as suits like Sophie's, torso vests or ice and cooling blankets, can also be used.
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