Turning to an experimental treatment, doctors in Great Britain used xenon, an inert gas, to prevent brain injury in a baby born in serious condition. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h6WHkV6rTnrO0B_jaHb6w7a1u99gD9EVKKUG1
In fact, newborn Riley Joyce was the first baby in the world to get the xenon gas treatment, which was developed by Marianne Thoreson, a University of Bristol professor of neonatal neuroscience, and Dr. John Dingley, a consultant anaesthetist at Swansea University’s School of Medicine. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/8611130.stm
When Riley was delivered by an emergency Caesarean section at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England, he didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing. With his odds of sustaining permanent brain damage considered 50-50, his parents agreed to have him sent to St. Michael’s Hospital in Bristol for the experimental treatment.
Within a week, Riley was eating and alert.
The xenon was used to help cool Riley’s brain so he wouldn’t suffer permanent brain damage. Xenon can double the effect of cooling the brain, according to research.
In the United Kingdom, more than 1,000 babies born at full term die or sustain brain trauma because of a lack of oxygen or blood supply at birth.
Xenon will be tried on at least 12 babies before researchers start a bigger trial.
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