TWO IN DOMINION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 278, 24 November 1938, Page 11

TWO IN DOMINION.

I AUCKLAND HAS ONE. Respirator Built By Public Hospital Engineer. SAVING OF SIX LIVES. Medical science and incchanical skill are combined in the various modification* of the Drinker respirator, or, as it is more commonly called, the '"iron lung." So tar as is known, there are only two of them in New Zealand, one at the Auckland Hospital and the other in Wellington, and Viscount Nuffield'* splendid offer is expected to he welcomed with enthusiasm throughout the Dominion. Auckland led the way nearly two years aso when a respirator designed and built bv the hospital engineer. Mr. F. ('. Jacobs, was put into operation. Results achieved with it have l»een little short of amazing; already it has saved live or six lives where other available methods would have been fruitless. Observers of the respirator ill action say that its visible effects 011 a patient are breath-takin<r. The face of one man [ placed in the sealed cabinet of the iron lung had almost the pallor of death, but under the steady pulsations of the respirator his blood was seen to flow again, and colour spread over his face. The iron lung is used for a variety of respiratory cases —asphyxiation caused by partial drowning. gaa poisoning and infantile paralysis are some of the most common. In the ease of a person rescued from drowning, for instance, artificial respiration of the ordinary type can only expel air from the lungs; but the iron lung forces air into the lungs as we'll. The secret of it* value, indeed, is the fact that it takes complete charge of the patient s breathing. Cost Only £60. A remarkable aspect of the Auckland Hospital's respirator is the fact that it was built by Mr. Jacobs mainly from materials which his department had on hand. Its total cost, including labour, was only about £60. The patient is placed on a stretcher inside a steel welded chamber about 6ft long, and his head protrudes into the ordinary atmosphere through a hole in the door. When this door is secured a variable-speed air pump, connected with the interior of the chamber, is set in motion, and this raises and lowers the pressure of the air within the chamber above and below the pressure of the air outside. Thus the patient's | lungs are contracted and expanded for I him. and he is made to breathe. The pulsations can be increased or decreased according to the physical limits of the patient, while temperature and other reactions* are carefully watched. A few hours in the iron-lung may see a patient past his crisis, but sometimes he must remain in it for several days until new strength comes to his own lungs. A large-capacity milking plant vacuum pump is embodied in Mr. Jacobs' respirator. A motor was already available, and the necessary variablespeed gear was constructed in the workshops. The use of the iron-lung, particularly in the treatment of certain types of infantile paralysis, came into prominence when an American millionaire's son, enclosed in a respirator, was conveyed from China to Chicago. Inventors are working on the appliance in an endeavour to simplify it. and there are now several different types. Some of the later models are portable ones, in which only the trunk of the patient is enclosed. "We will accept it with both hands," said the chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, Mr. Alan J. Moody, when he was told this afternoon of Viscount Nuffield"* offpr. Expressing warm appreciation of the proposal, Mr. Moody said that while the hospital alreadv had one respirator in operation, it would be only too grateful to receive a second one.