Tatiana Saiaana, who is almost four months old, was born through emergency cesarean section on Aug. 29. The baby inhaled meconium, a mixture of amniotic fluid and fetal stool, which resulted in severe respiratory issues.
Medical experts suggest that such a condition affects around 15 percent of all newborn babies. About two percent of babies develop severe problems such as Tatiana's. The condition causes the small air sacs in the lungs of an infant to collapse, making it impossible for the infant to breathe.
Tatiana was born in the Swedish Medical Center but was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Seattle Children's hospital due to her medical condition.
Dr. Craig Jackson, who is the director of the NICU, said that they get about a dozen such cases in a year.
Doctors placed Tatiana on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a method that involves a pump circulating blood via an artificial lung and back in a sick baby's bloodstream. Typically the treatment is done only for a few days; however, Tatiana was on ECMO for several weeks and did not show any signs of improvement. The doctors thought that the baby would not recover at all.
Looking at Tatiana's condition, Dr. Kendra Smith, who is a neonatologist at NICU, recommended perflubron for the baby.
Perflubron is a clear liquid rich in oxygen and twice as heavy as water. The drug can seep in the small air sacs within the lungs and inflates the tiny balloons in order to restore breathing.
In mid-1990s, perflubron was successful in treating premature babies. However, perflubron did not show any benefits for adults suffering from lung injury or respiratory disorder. As the drug did not have a large market, further research was discontinued.
However, Dr. Smith, who studied about the drug, wanted to use it on Tatiana. She reached out to the FDA and requested the drug be used on Tatiana.
The drug is approved by health agencies in Europe and Canada, so the FDA sanctioned the use of perflubron in this case as an exception. OriGen, the distributor of the drug, arranged for the shipment of perflubron to Seattle.
The drug did not work on Tatiana immediately, but the baby started recovering after a few days and was back home for Christmas.
"It's a different way to ventilate the lungs," said Dr. Smith. "You can fill the lung with fluid and superimpose gentle breaths that get the oxygen liquid into the body and release CO2."
Tatiana's case reflects the importance of perflubron in saving a life. It remains to be seen if the FDA will approve the use of the drug in the U.S., a move that could save the lives of many babies suffering from medical complications such as Tatiana's.
