Surgeons Use Gore-Tex to Save Little Boy's Life
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Hailed by its inventors as the first truly “breathable” material, it’s familiar to hikers all over the world.
But when Gore-Tex was launched back in 1978, the designers probably didn’t imagine it would one day help to save a little boy’s life.
Stanley Hampton was born on on New Year’s Day 2008 with a serious heart condition, called total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (TAPVD). TAPVD is a condition where the heart veins are wrongly connected and the red, oxygenated blood is not carried around the body correctly, making the child appear blue.
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Stanley underwent several operations at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital – but nothing seemed to work until surgeons tried a procedure involving a strip of specially prepared Gore-Tex.
Because Stanley was suffering from high blood pressure, there needed to be a way to release the pressure when it built up in the chambers, or ventricles, in his heart.
So a strip of strong, flexible, waterproof Gore-Tex was inserted between the two chambers.
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It has a tiny hole in the middle so when Stanley's heart works harder and pressure builds up, it allows a small amount of blood to be released from one chamber to the other, releasing the pressure.
“We are one of just a handful of places in the world to have used this as a solution in fixing hearts and improving function,” a spokesman for the hospital said.
Stanley has since made a full recovery and now runs around just like any other toddler.
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“He’s a real fighter,” Stanley’s mom Donna Reeve, 21, said. “At Great Ormond Street the nurses called him Stan the Man. They always told me to be strong, because he is a survivor.”