Welcome to world of the weird, where we’ve just discovered an unusual use for Viagra: Saving babies, rather than making them!
When Lewis Goodfellow was born in Tyneside, England, last August, he was 24 weeks premature, weighed just over 1lb and was in mortal danger because one of his lungs had failed and he wasn’t getting enough oxygen circulating around his tiny little body.
Things got so bad, his parents began to plan his funeral. But consultant neonatalist Alan Fenton saved the day by giving the tot a wee shot of Sildenafil, better known to many middle-aged men as Viagra. Hey presto, healthy baby who finally made it home last month.
Alan told the BBC:
“The problem we see in premature babies with breathing difficulties is although we can blow oxygen into their lungs to help them, there isn’t enough blood supply to various areas of the lungs to take the oxygen around the rest of the body. What Sildenafil does is open up the blood vessels so they can capture the oxygen and take it around the body.”
Hurrah! We love a happy ending as much as we love puppies and kittens.
Mind you. We can’t help wondering……….Nooooooooo! Banish the bad thoughts!
[we all love a heroic tot]
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Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
