A Baby Saved by an Alert Doctor

Dr. Malcolm Coulthard, a pediatric nephrologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital in Newcastle (UK) saved a newborn infant from certain death by his ingenious and innovative care for a newborn baby by the name of Millie Kelly.

When she was born, nearly two years ago in a different hospital in a different English city, Millie was diagnosed with a diaphragmatic hernia, a severe malformation of the abdominal wall, resulting in the invasion of the intestine through the diaphragm. Then, shortly after surgery to repair the hernia, she developed acute renal failure. With her blocked kidneys, Millie was in mortal danger. Her only chance of survival depended on dialysis which seemed impossible because a 3 kilo baby can not normally be connected to a dialysis machine. One problem is the fact that the necessary membrane filtration connections do not conform to an infant's tiny body. Another issue is the access channels to the blood vessels and the inability to be able to boot machine circuit with a minimum 50 milliliters (ml) of blood where the maximum amount of blood you can take from a baby this small is 25 ml. Any more and you endanger the baby's life. (Due to a congenital malformation of her abdomen, Millie is one of the rare infants who can not undergo peritoneal dialysis, the technique commonly used in these cases.)

While this was happening, Dr Coulthard of Newcastle and his Dialysis unit's head nurse were working in his garage, putting the finishing touches on a special pediatric dialysis unit that could be used in Millie's case. To the utter delight of the two inventors, Millie was connected to their prototype for several hours a day for a week. While acute renal failure usually responds to treatment immediately, this course of treatment had to be extended longer, but it eventually proved successful. Today, at two years of age, Millie is a vivacious, healthy blonde. Her mother, 21 year old Rebecca, told The Times that when she first saw the dialysis machine she knew it was hand made because of the pieces of metal and exposed patches of paint.

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