The FDA approved a temporary version of the diaphragm pacing system using on “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve after his riding accident left him a quadriplegic.
“I also like to say, without Christopher Reeve people wouldn’t have heard about this,” said Dr. Raymond Onders, a surgeon at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical System who pioneered the device. “He knew that being on a ventilator is a problem.”
Reeve became the second patient to receive the system in 2003 that took him off a ventilator.
The pacing device sends an electric stimulus to the diaphragm, causing it to contract and forcing the patient to breathe.
Before the pandemic, Dr. Onders has used the system on for spinal cord injuries, ALS, and anyone who could not breathe on their own.
“If you can’t breathe, nothing else matters,” said Dr. Onders. “We’ve had that in the United States for a number of years because we’ve had so many patients on the ventilators before this present pandemic.”
The temporary system can help coronavirus patients breathe or can be used for other patients on a ventilator to free up ventilators for COVID-19 patients.
“We have this underlying, people that are still using ICU beds in the United States that we’re trying to affect now and in the future,” said Onders, noting that patients lose 50% of the muscle mass in their diaphragms after just one day on a ventilator.
“The less time you’re on the ventilator, the greater your chance of survival is and that’s what we’re trying to do. Decrease your amount of time on the ventilator.”
A Cleveland company is ramping up production of the devices.
There’s another Cleveland connection: Superman was created by two Cleveland youngsters, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in the Glenville neighborhood.
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