Indian-origin doctor designs makeshift inhaler to help asthmatic toddler on

When Dr. Guru heard that a child on-board a flight that he was in, was suffering an asthma attack, he quickly made an inhaler out of a plastic bottle.

The parents of the boy, a 2-year-old, told Guru they had accidentally packed their son’s asthma medication in their luggage, reported ABC News.

Doctor Khurshid Guru is urging parents of asthmatic children to keep their medication close by in wake of a scary incident aboard a trans-Atlantic Air Canada flight September 18. Adult inhalers require the user to hold the medication in their lungs for a certain amount of time, something that would be almost impossible for a screaming child to do.

However, the plane only had an adult inhaler on board, which would not be of much help, he said.

“The child had developed a cold”, Guru said. This way the oxygen and the medicine could be directly administered through the bottle opening to the child at the same time.

To create the nebulizer, the surgeon cut up a water bottle and added oxygen to one end and the adult inhaler through a small hole in the bottle. It was at this time he decided the child needed to receive treatment on board the flight and waiting to land would be too unsafe.

The quick-thinking doctor explained that, thanks the device, “within about half an hour and two treatments he was sounding much better”, noting that the child’s oxygen levels had risen to around 95%.

In an effort to make it easier for the toddler to use his contraption, Guru modified his design by cutting a hole in a plastic cup and mounting it atop the bottle so that it could fit against his mouth and nose.

He performed one of the first robot-assisted radical cystectomies in New York, and has worked in development and evolution of oncologic safety and efficacy of minimally-invasive approaches to bladder cancer.

“I told the father then that the most important thing is that you never ever leave these medications away”, he told ABC News. During each of his last three transatlantic flights, he said he’s been asked to help a sick patient on board.