New Help for Breathing

I recently read somewhere that 340 ALS patients would die on each of the 12 days during the London 2012 Olympics. Close to 5,000 funerals would be conducted during those 12 days because of the devastating effects of the disease.  Death is usually caused by respiratory failure.  I recall wih horror Bill's minute by minute struggle to breath with little help to offer except a ventilator, which he did not want.  It was with a glad heart that I learned about a new treatment to assist with breathing problems in ALS patients.

The FDA recently approved the NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System or DPS by Synapse Biomedical Inc. In ALS patients, the phrenic nerve which stimulates the diaphragm to contract to assist breathing fails, and the person loses the ability to breathe without a mechanical ventilator.  The device is aimed at electrically stimulating the phrenic nerve to cause muscle contraction much like a cardiac pacemaker stimulates the heart to contract.  This helps the patient to breathe with their own muscles.  Hopefully it will allow people to breathe better, sleep better, delay respiratory failure and mechanical ventilation, and enhance survival and quality of life. If it is able to relieve at all the desperate struggle to breathe which results from this vile disease, then it is a God sent blessing. A minimally invasive procedure is required to place the electrodes.  More information can be found on the Synapse Biomedical/NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System website.

All these advances to enhance comfort and the quality of life for ALS patients result from ongoing reserch. Remember to support ALS research through the ALS Association.