BREATHING MACHINE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4746, 14 September 1935, Page 3

BREATHING MACHINE

FIGHT FOR GIRL'S LIFE. A FORTNIGHT'S TREATMENT. After responding to more than a fortnight's continual treatment in the Drinker artificial respirator at the Children's Hospital, Melbourne, following complications which arose from diphtherai, Ruby Currie, six, has been able to leave the machine, which created artificial breathing for the girl. The struggle to save Ruby's life held the interest of the medical profession and general public. throughout Australia. Doctors never gave up hope that the machine, which is the only one of .its kind in Melbourne, would enable the girl to regain normal health. It was only with extreme difficulty that Ruby could draw breath when she was removed from the Fairfield Hospital to the Children's Hospital for respirator treatment. But for artificial respiration she would almost certainly have suffocated. At first, she confided to her mother, the huge "box" with its gleaming white enamel paint and glittering steel fittings frightened her. But that was only for a day or so. "This is a swell bed, mummy. It's so comfortable to lie in. It doesn't hurt me

a little bit to breathe when I'm in it," she told her mother after two days had elapsed. "From then on she really seemed to like the respirator," Mrs. Currie said. "I used to joke about it with her and say she was nurse's favourite for. being able to sleep in such a handsome bed. And she would laugh and tell me that none of the other little boys and girls were lucky enough to have such a fine bed, with white and silver trappings, and so many doctors and nurses to look after them."

To entertain the child, the doctor in charge of the case would place her on her left side and then on her right side for alternating periods. Lying on her left side, stie had an unobstructed view of the street and its many passers-by, and soon she had made firm friends with a number of school children and municipal workers, who would stand by the window and wave to her.

The artificial stimulation of breath by the reduction of atmospheric pressure on the chest and abdomen is the secret of the Drinker artificial respirator.