Viagra 'Lifesaver' For 11-Month-Old Boy

by Thilaka Ravi on  July 02, 2009 at 12:16 PM Child Health News
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A little boy with a serious heart condition has managed to survive, courtesy anti-impotence drug Viagra. Doctors had given him just a few weeks to live.

Little Alfie Oliver, who needs six doses of the drug every day, is set to celebrate his first birthday in two weeks.

Alfie was born with two of his main arteries reversed, and surgeons switched them when he was 16 days old.

During a second op at three months, he had a heart attack and was rushed to intensive care.

Parents Tracey, 26, and rail worker Rob, 28, were told that he was less likely to survive and were put in touch with a children's hospice.

Medics diagnosed the incurable blood vessel disorder pulmonary hypertension, which hits only a handful of children in Britain each year.

They prescribed liquid Viagra to open up the vessels.

After the treatment, Alfie is doing well and learning to walk, although doctors have warned that he may one day require a heart and lung transplant.

"We were shocked when the doctors put him on Viagra as you don't think of it as a drug for babies," the Sun quoted Tracey, of York, as saying.

"We don't mind though. We call it Alfie's lifesaver.

"It makes people giggle when we tell them - but if it keeps our son alive then who cares. He is our little fighter," she added.

Source-ANI
THK

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