PUMPING THE LUNGS WITH A RUBBER BULB.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 721, 14 November 1914, Page 3

PUMPING THE LUNGS WITH A RUBBER BULB.

Two members of the Rockfeller Institute, Drs. S. J. Meltsor and John Auer, have devised an ar'.ificialbreathing instrument... much simpler than the pulmotor, by means of which a person may b? k-.-pt alive for hours without any motion or effort at breathing on his part. This is accomplished by pumping- a steady stream c-f air into the lungs by means of a rubber tube pur.hed down into the windpipe to the point where it branches out to the lungs, having attached to it a rubber bulb cr foot bellows for pumping tho air. That is the apparatus in its simplest form. Of course, it has been improved and amplified until it may be a complicated machine, with apressuro gauge, a motor pump, gas bags or tanks, etc., but even the simplest apparatus will perform wonders. One of its least elaborate forms 's shown in the illustration.

It consists of a rubber tube, which should not bo more than one-half or two-thirds tho size of lbs inside of the windpipe, so that tho returning stream of air may escape along its sides. The tube is connected with a double rubber bulb such as sometimes seen on an ordinary, atomizer for throwing- a steady stream of spray or air. These are the essentials of the apparatus, but in order to know how strong a; stream of air is being sent into the lungs the air tube is also connected with a gauge to show tho pressure of the air passing through tho tuba.

The instrument may bo used for reviving persons who are asphyxiated from inhaling gas, eiiher in mines or houses, or from drowning ■ and for reviving new-born babies who do not breathe, or patients who stop breathing while taking an anes'.hetic, such as chloroform or ether. It may also be used to give an anesthetic, and it has .been found to be one of the safest and best methods of doing this. In this instance, the air, as it passes from the pump to the lungs, is made to pass through a bottle containing the anesthetic, some of the v;ipor of which is mixed with the air and is carried to the lungs. The method is also exceedingly valuable in operations on the chest oi v lungs in which the chest must bo opened. When this cavity is opened to the outside air under ordinary conditions, the lungs collapse and th? patients dieimmediately. Such operations have heretofore been done in a large cabinet under diminished air pressure. By the method now described any degree of pressure may be maintained inside the lungs by simply increasing or diminishing the amount of air sent into the lungs, as indicated on the pressure gauge, and the lungs may be maintained in any degree of inflation or collapse. In the case of asphyxiated persons; if the heart has not stopped for too long a time, the- application of stimulants, electricity, massage, etc., to excite it to action, together with this method of supplying oxygen to the blood, may save many lives which woxild otherwise be lost. ■ The method is called intratracheal insufflation, which means simplj*, the forcing of air into the trachea or windpipe,