Artificial lung technology can help all kinds of people, but I’m especially glad to see it being used to help those wounded troops. What bothers me is the action of the bureacrats. Sure, there is such a thing as due diligence, but it isn’t as if this technology was unproven or poorly implemented.
He can walk short distances around his Florida home without getting out of breath and no longer needs supplemental oxygen at night, his mother said.
To save his life, military doctors looked outside their normal arsenal of medical tools and found something that would not only keep Joshua Mishoe alive, but within two months would help revive three other servicemembers.
Called an interventional lung assist and made by a German company called Novalung, the device is now part of the inventory a special Air Force pulmonary emergency team takes to Iraq when critical lung patients need aid.
But using it also placed doctors in the cross hairs of an investigation by the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army because the Novalung machine hadn’t made its way through the lengthy American regulations process required to approve medical devices for use.
And it led to the Army medical agency reprimanding at least one of the doctors for his actions, even as the families of the injured praised the doctors for taking bold steps to save their sons.
Do you think the military was justified in its actions? Should advanced medical technology that may not be yet approved here in the USA be used to save soldiers’ lives?
Here is a link to Novalung’s English Website.
Interesting to note:
that MORE medical advances happen during WAR TIME, then any other period of history.
You were complaining about laws regulating smoking and A proposal that would restrict fast-food chains from cooking with artery-clogging trans fat oils. They were restricting things in the name of individual safety.
I know that if I was dying and a Doctor said there was a treatment that might work but wasn’t tested yet….I would be the test case. Life is grand, I want to hold on to mine.
Yes, and so would I. That is why the Government has stepped in to regulate medical practices and drugs. When we become desperate we make irrational decisions. It all becomes so easy to believe that snake oil medicine will cure us. Especially when the physician, who has spent most of his life studying, says your condition is terminal. Today there are hucksters lined up to take your money, all promising a miracle cure.
Again, having said that, if there is a medical procedure, device, or drug that was developed and accepted for use in most other countries, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, and other countries that adhere to similar quality control as here in the U.S., I would have little compunction about the procedure. Part of the high cost of drugs and medical devices is the verification for efficacy and safety. Too often these have to be repeated to be accepted in each country.
AB CD, looks like you’re trolling again. I posted my comments from a topic last week on Chicago’s health initiatives. You may either read the comment above in #19, or try the link to go to the original. If you can’t provide anything to back up your point, then please be more careful about what you say. You are wrong way too often.
#17…Smartalix….I don’t….but thats another topic.