THE "IRON LUNG"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 148, 10 July 1937, Page 6

THE "IRON LUNG"

-Press Association.)

Machine Installed At Auckland

(By Teleetapb-

AUCKLAND* Last Night. Eecent cable messages telling how an American miliionaire's son suffering. fronii infantile paralysis,' was conveyed! froih China to Ohicago enclosed in -an "iron lung" whiph alone preserved his( life, contained little news for the staffi of the Auckland Hospital. Since Janu- • ary last the institution has had such ai macnine desigued and made in Auck-j land as the result of coll.aboration be-j tween the medieal and engineering de-j partments. ^ ; Techhically named the "Drinker res-' pirator" aftfer the American who'orig- . inally devised it, the "apparatus consists of an airtight steel cabinet in which; the patient lies with only. his head protruding. Connected to the Cabinet is an. •electrically -driven pump which raises and lowers the air pressure .within in rcgular pulsations, "causing the patient to bre'athe even though his respiratory muscles are unable to function. The machine was deemed to. be necessary equipment for the hospital because of. the possibility. that infantile paralysis cases under treatment there would develop paralysis of the respiratory system. Deaths from this cause have, in .fact, been reported from dilferent parts of the Dominion in recent months. The pump is" driven by a varlable speed electric motor through double reductipn belts and the operator can regulate the strength of the pulsations hs the doctor in charge may direct. The white enamclled cabinet is made *of ' electrically welded sheet steel and ia* mounted on a tubular metal stand of table height, supported on casters. 80 far the apparatus kas been used only once at the hospital. An infantile paralysis patient was admitted in a nioribund condition scarcely breathing and on thb point' of death. He was placed in the cabinet and artificial respjration was applied. Very soon his natnral colour retufned and he was able to speak. The re&ult appeared to be satisfactory when he suddenly collapsed and died. A post mortem revealed brain lesions which were sufficient to account for death and it was then considered that he could not have survived. ,.'■■■ Apart from the' treatment of infantile paralysis cases,. the machine has many possibilities of usefulness in asphyxiation cases due . to electrie shock or noxious gases, provided that patients can be brought to it quickly enough.