Doctor MacGyvers a nebulizer out of a water bottle to save an asthmatic toddler | Emergency Preparedness | Forums

some fast thinking on his part

A New York doctor became a hero in the skies recently when he turned into a medical MacGyver by creating a device that helped an asthmatic toddler struggling to breathe during a transatlantic flight.

Dr. Khurshid Guru, director of Robotic Surgery at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, told ABC News he was aboard a transatlantic Air Canada flight from Spain to the U.S. on Sept. 18 when he was notified of a toddler in trouble.

Guru said he found the 2-year-old boy crying and short of breath and his parents said they accidentally packed his asthma medication in checked luggage.

After putting an oxygen meter on the child, Guru said he was disturbed to find the child's oxygen level was dipping down to a dangerously low level -- about 87 or 88 percent. Guru, who normally doesn't treat pediatric patients, said he knew he needed to do something quickly.

Guru said he knew the child needed oxygen but also asthma medication, but the plane only had an adult inhaler on board. Guru was concerned the crying toddler was too young to understand how to use the adult inhaler that requires the patient to breathe and hold in the medication. Instead the doctor, who normally works with high-tech robots to treat patients, came up with a jerry-rigged device similar to a nebulizer that would deliver both oxygen and asthma medication to the crying child.

To create the nebulizer, the surgeon cut up a water bottle and added oxygen to one end and the adult inhaler through a small hole in the bottle. That way the oxygen and medication could be delivered through the bottle's opening directly to the child.

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