My colleague, J, was researching on asthmatic causes and cures and told me a shocking use for dishwashing liquids. Apparently, one of the methods doctors use to clear blocked airways on babies during an asthma attack is by pumping fairy liquid into their lungs and then flushing out the soap quickly!
According to J, the surfactant in fairy liquid would spread out to form a very thin coating on the air passages and aveoli (tiny air sacs), reducing the surface tension and keeping the airways relaxed and open so that air can get in.
The theory sounds pretty acceptable to me but I’m not sure if medical practitioners do actually use any type of dishwashing liquids as a source of surfactant. I certainly hope doctors out there are using an alternative form of surfactant that has been clinically approved. Washing liquid is just too much for my vivid imagination. *shivers*
I suppose the use of dishwashing liquid is not entirely impossible, maybe it is even a First Aid method which I have not heard of. Faced with a situation where the baby in your care has stopped breathing during an asthma attack, and knowing that the nearest hospital is an hour’s drive away, would you administer first aid with soapy water? I suppose death via poisoning would take longer than suffocation and if you know of this option, you would actually, seriously, contemplate this choice indeed.
If I ever have a baby with asthma, I’ll tell the doc to do whatever he needs to do to keep my child alive but spare me the specifics cos I’ll probably go crazing visualizing someone pour soap down my baby’s throat!
[Disclaimer: Information provided here has not been verified! If you have a child at home who has a blocked airway, please seek professional medical help immediately and do not attempt anything stupid.]
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3 comments:
i thought asthma needs the inhaler, not some soap down throat.
Its the main airways that have constricted and the air cant come out. Not a problem of the aveoli that collapsed. So adding soap wont help. U need to broaded the airways to allow air to come out.
Only "soap" that they pour down kids is something that I cant remember the name. Been out of school too long, but its something like pulmonary surfectant. Yes, thats the one that acts like fairy liquid and is the one that is dribbled down the lungs into the aveoli of premature infants.
Shaoren
Yikes!! You've just confirmed that they pour... ok, ok, 'drip' fairy liquid down the lungs of babies...
Eh, that thing that they "drip" is LIKE fairy liquid, but its NOT fairy liquid. Its actually made in our lungs! Its the immature babies that dont have enough of it in their lungs that need to have it dripped in!
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