Blue baby syndrome
From Freepedia
Blue Baby Syndrome is a term that is the nickname or category of several different diseases:
These include:
Its name refers to the symptom that occurs in infants with these problems: their skin appears blue because of a lack of oxygen in the circulating blood. In 1944, The Johns Hopkins Hospital was the first to successively perform an operation to relieve this syndrome.
On November 29, 1944, Drs. Blalock and Taussig decided to proceed with the anastomosis, or joining, of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery in a cyanotic child.
Dr. Helen Taussig was convinced that the operation would help the patient,and despite the technical problems of operating on a very small and very ill child, Dr. Alfred Blalock's skill was equal to the task. Blalock worked with his surgical team and his invaluable assistant Vivien T. Thomas, who stood behind Blalock and offered a number of helpful suggestions in regard to the technique employed.
The tiny child who had been at such great risk survived the operation and slowly improved. Over the succeeding days she gradually became less blue. By the end of the second postoperative week it was clear she would recover.
