The parents of four-month-old Tatiana Saiaana rejoiced after learning that their baby has been saved from her critical condition using an officially unapproved drug, CBS News reported.
Shortly after she was born on Aug. 29, doctors of Seattle Children's Hospital told Elise and Bruce Saiaana that their baby's lungs had collapsed after she accidentally inhaled a dangerous chemical.
Tatiana spent her first month in the hospital connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine which kept her lungs and heart pumping.
Since her lungs were still not developing on their own, doctors initially believed that Tatiana would not live long. They even told her parents to prepare for the worse.
Despite what the doctors told them, the parents remained strong for their daughter.
"I wasn't going to give up on my daughter," the father told KIRO TV.
"She was still fighting so we had to fight for her too," Elise Saiaana added.
After a month of serious treatment, the hospital's neonatologist Dr. Kendra Smith approached Mr. and Mrs. Saiaana and told them about an experimental drug that could save their baby.
The drug, named Perflubron, was first tested during the 1990s as a means to expand collapsed lungs. It works through a type of liquid filled with oxygen that immediately evaporates once the lungs have fully expanded.
Despite producing positive results among adult test participants, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not issue an approval for the drug because it did not provide as much benefits as other liquid-based lung ventilation methods.
Although it was not FDA approved, Mr. and Mrs. Saiaana signed a waiver to allow doctors to administer Perflubron on Tatiana.
During the first few days after the drug was used, doctors did not see any improvements on Tatiana's condition. But after continuous treatment, they discovered that the infant's lungs were beginning to expand and develop.
Eventually, Tatiana was able to breathe on her own without the help of the ECMO machine. After recovering fully, hospital officials allowed the parents to bring home their baby on Dec. 15.
"If it wasn't for that drug then there would be nothing left to do for her," Elise Saiaana said. "The gift of having her home is the only gift we wanted this Christmas."
