Source: Times of India | Image Courtesy: economictimes.indiatimes
Sometimes quick thinking and on the spot reaction not only saves time but can even save the life. Dr Khurshid Guru who leaves in the US saved the life of a 2-year-old boy who suffered an asthma attack onboard the flight by creating a makeshift inhaler out of a cup and bottle.
He is the director of Robotic Surgery at the Rosewell Park Cancer Institute in New York, was aboard the Air Canada flight from Spain when he noticed the toddler in trouble.The child was gasping for breath and his parents had accidentally packed his asthma medication in checked luggage.
As reported by Times of India, Guru said, “The child had developed a cold. We were three or four hours into the flight. I think with the cold and popping of the ears and crying, he got worse,” said Guru.
The child’s oxygen level was dipping to a dangerously low level. He needed oxygen but also asthma medication. However, the plane only had an adult inhaler on board, which would not be of much help, he said. Guru, who hails from J&K, came up with a jerry-rigged device similar to a nebuliser that would deliver both oxygen and asthma medication to the crying child.
Flying back from ERUS15 had to design a nebuliser for a 2 yr old asthmatic over the atlantic. Thank God kid did well! pic.twitter.com/fQOJ2Ac0EA
— Khurshid A. Guru (@KhurshidGuru) September 18, 2015
Guru then cut the bottle and added the oxygen to one end and the adult inhaler through a small hole in the bottle. With this way the oxygen could be delivered through the bottle’s opening directly to the child. “As the bottle went near to the child’s face, he pushed it away. I got a water cup and made a hole in the bottle and focused it on his face and told the parents to keep it there. Within about half an hour and two treatments he was sounding much better,” Guru said.
However, after the treatment, the child’s oxygen level was at a normal level. By the time the plane landed, the 2-year-old was playing with his mother. Someone really said that Doctors are God’s in the form of human. Dr Khurshid’s effort is laudable and he needs applause.
