Blind Science
Monday, November 3, 2003
Here's a poignant personal story nearly modern medicine from my friend Michael Millenson. Michael is a journalist who has played a pregnant purpose inwards ushering inwards the character together with security movements inwards American wellness care.
The lede:
When I was a newborn — a preemie struggling to live inwards a infirmary nursery’s incubator — an article deep within The Washington Post saved me from becoming blind.
The article — on Page A22 — discussed question showing that also much oxygen inwards an incubator could drive babies to lose their sight. When my worried parents phoned the hospital, they were told doctors had also seen the slice together with promptly adjusted the incubator’s air mixture. What none of them knew was that the sight inwards my correct oculus had already been destroyed past times what is immediately called retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP. Fortunately, the vision inwards my left oculus remained intact, saving me from a lifetime inwards the dark.
That was agency dorsum inwards 1953. Yet simply a few months ago, a federal gauge dismissed a case involving premature babies enrolled inwards a report of what incubator oxygen score was best. The infants’ parents said they hadn’t been fully informed of all the risks to their infants. I was stunned. In 2015, how tin terminate the oxygen score inwards incubators withal live endangering babies?
The article — on Page A22 — discussed question showing that also much oxygen inwards an incubator could drive babies to lose their sight. When my worried parents phoned the hospital, they were told doctors had also seen the slice together with promptly adjusted the incubator’s air mixture. What none of them knew was that the sight inwards my correct oculus had already been destroyed past times what is immediately called retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP. Fortunately, the vision inwards my left oculus remained intact, saving me from a lifetime inwards the dark.
That was agency dorsum inwards 1953. Yet simply a few months ago, a federal gauge dismissed a case involving premature babies enrolled inwards a report of what incubator oxygen score was best. The infants’ parents said they hadn’t been fully informed of all the risks to their infants. I was stunned. In 2015, how tin terminate the oxygen score inwards incubators withal live endangering babies?