the use of Viagra which helped blood to the hands and feet

Doctors who are aware that the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra can improve blood flow to all parts of the body sometimes use it in an unconventional way. Ukmedix News has reported on a number of occasions how the drug has been used to help very young children and adults who suffer from pulmonary arterial hypertension, (basically a blood flow problem) but in a recent case the drug was used to help a twenty year old girl suffering from a rare form of meningitis and may well have been responsible for saving her life.

The student Jamie Schanbaum woke up one day to find that she had dark patches on her body and her hands and feet felt heavy and cold. On arriving in hospital she was diagnosed as having meningococcemia which is a type of meningitis that attacks the bloodstream as opposed to the brain. In this case the bacteria spread all over her body and began to prevent a proper blood flow to Jamie’s hands and feet which started to cause gangrene.

Despite treatment to destroy the bacteria a lot of damage from the lack of blood flow had already been done but thanks to the use of Viagra which helped blood to the hands and feet as well as putting her in an oxygen chamber the unfortunate girl is likely to survive. She will have to have the lower part of her legs amputated and has lost most of her fingers but doctors say that she is lucky to be alive. Jamie who is being treated by Dr. Peter Lin at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Texas is said to be coping despite the terrible shock of her condition.

This terrible disease kills about twelve percent of all people who get it and leaves around fifteen percent of them with loss of limbs, hearing loss or brain damage. In America around 2,000 cases occur every year.