Viagra Saves Premature Baby's Life - taken from Telegraph News

By Sally Peck and agencies

Last Updated: 3:09pm GMT 15/02/2007

A premature baby on the brink of death has made a "miraculous recovery" after being given the little blue sex pill Viagra.

The parents of Lewis Goodfellow, born at just 24 weeks, said they had started making funeral plans as the their son lay critically ill in hospital but he is now at home with the couple after being given the anti-impotence drug.

Jade Goodfellow and John Barclay, the baby's parents, from Walker, Newcastle, credited the wonder drug with saving their son's life.

Jade's pregnancy had been going smoothly until she unexpectedly went into labour at just 24 weeks. Babies born at 23 weeks and before have a low chance of survival.

Lewis was born at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary on August 16 last year weighing just 1lb 8oz.

When he was just over a day old, Lewis's lung collapsed and doctors discovered a duct in his heart had not closed up, which meant that blood was not being pumped around his body properly.

At three weeks old, surgeons stitched the duct with a silk thread, but medics became increasingly worried about the youngster's lungs which, despite being given maximum supplies of oxygen, were still struggling to get it into his blood supply.

At that point, doctors gave the baby Viagra and, gradually, Lewis's stricken lung began to improve.

The drug works by opening up some of the small blood vessels in lungs which are not working properly to help carry oxygen around the body with the blood.

Viagra, the trade name of the drug Sildenafil, is being used for very premature babies only after doctors have tried all other treatment options and consulted the baby's family.

Lewis is one of the first babies to be given the pill by medics at the Royal Victoria Infirmary's special care baby unit in Newcastle.

He was allowed to leave hospital on January 15 and is now at home with his parents Jade, a sales assistant, and John, a lifeguard. At six months old he still needs 24-hour oxygen but his mother, Jade, 17, believes it is a miracle he is alive.

Alan Fenton, the Royal Victoria Infirmary consultant neonatologist, said: "Using Sildenafil is relatively unusual.

"It is a fairly new form of treatment which we've been using on the unit for around a year.

"It has been used successfully in full term babies but it is unclear whether it works as well in very premature babies." He said, so far, they had used the drug to treat six premature babies.

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