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Surfaxin
Helping premature babies take their first breath
Over the beeps and hums of hospital machinery came a frightening noise—the sound of a premature baby gasping for breath. She weighed only 3 pounds. Her father stood next to her, watching her chest heave. She clutched his finger with her small hand. A generation ago, this baby might not have survived. But thanks to scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), she was given a drug called Surfaxin (lucinactant) to help her breathe. Charles Cochrane, MD, was there that day. He invented Surfaxin, so when he heard that doctors would be giving the drug to a premature baby girl, he rushed to the hospital. “The baby’s breathing was just horrendous,” he remembers. “Then they gave her the drug and her breathing suddenly became smooth and rhythmic. Her father
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turned around and grabbed ahold of me. I was in tears.”
endeavor /
spring 2018
scripps.edu
