Viagra: Can that sex pill save your life?

Lewis Goodfellow was born prematurely at 24 weeks. Weighing just 1lb 8oz., Lewis was at the point of death, even before he had a chance to experience this world, because one of his lungs was not functioning and the amount of oxygen getting into his bloodstream was not enough. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, the doctors at the Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, the hospital where Lewis had been delivered on the 15th of February 2007, decided to administer real Viagra tablets on Lewis as a last ditch effort to save the infant’s life. Lo and behold, the unexpected happened. Lewis’s life was saved by this experimental treatment.

The Lewis’s case, though anything but discouraging to anyone who wants to buy Viagra online with no prescription from the ethical standpoint, is a factual story of how the erectile dysfunction pill helped save the life of an infant.

Originally formulated as a prescription drug for treating men who had a kind of impotence known as erectile dysfunction – which is the inability of a man to achieve or maintain erection long enough for sexual intercourse to take place. The ability of the drug to save the life of an infant was however a dimension not known as at then. But considering the fact that it is a known fact that Viagra exerts its erectile effect by dilating the blood vessels, the decision to administer the drug as a last resort by the doctors might have been informed by this fact. According to Lewis’s parents, the doctors had been clutching at straws at the time;

Lewis couldn’t be given any more oxygen. The hope that the blood could open up tiny blood vessels in Lewis’s lungs, just as it dilates vessels in adults, had prompted the doctors to give the administration a whirl.
The consultant neonatologist at the hospital, Alan Fenton, after the operation, explained the decision of the doctors thus: Babies born prematurely with breathing difficulties, the problem the doctors at the Royal Infirmary had observed, was that, though oxygen could be blown into their lungs, the blood supply to various parts of the lungs was usually not enough to take the oxygen to the rest of the body. Sildenafil corrects this problem, in Lewis’s case at least, by opening up the blood vessels to allow for the capture of oxygen and its subsequent spread to the other parts of the body.

Another factual story of how Viagra helped to save an infant’s life is the case of a baby from Kolkata, India, who was born with a rare congenital heart problem. According to cardiac surgeon, K.R. Balakrishnan of Malar Hospital – where the baby was born – the baby’s heart had a hole in it and was on the wrong side of her body.

She also had a poorly formed right lung that needed to be repaired. Born to Subrata and Dipa Saha of Kolkata in December, the baby was called Tanisha. During the risky, four-hour operation that saw her blood pressure rising and her blood begin flowing in the wrong direction to the heart, Balakrishnan confirmed that he gave Tanisha Viagra, and the drug is being given credit for saving her life.

Finally, for a drug which has achieved so much popularity for bringing succour to many a home of impotent man, the testified dimension of Viagra’s ability to solve such critical heart problems as in the infants’ stories would in no doubt renew the already heightened interest in the drug. From an ethical standpoint, however, anyone who wishes to buy Viagra cheap deals, for whatever reason, should seek the advice of a professional.