Viagra cure for girl's freak lung disorder

By Venkata Vemuri, London, Sep 2 : Heard of a seven-year-old using Viagra? No blasphemy intended, it's just a pointer that the drug also has non-sexual, therapeutic uses.

Natalie Archibald of Musselburgh, Edinburgh, was like any other bubbly girl of her age. While opening her presents on Christmas Day two years ago, the child suddenly collapsed.

Her parents took her to the hospital. The doctors thought it was a case of over excitement and treated her to calm her down.

She seemed to recover the doctors thought, but Natalie was never the same again. Back home, she suffered fits from exhaustion, sometimes even unable to breath normally.

Back to the hospital, she went. Doctors were at their wit's end trying to fathom her condition.

Her mother Janis gave up her job as a legal secretary to look after Natalie as she began collapsing and turning blue on a regular basis following the first incident in 2006.

Janis said: "It was so frustrating because I knew there was something wrong with my wee girl but no one could find out what it was".

She said it got to the stage where she had almost given up trying to find out, until a doctor new to her went back into Natalie's records and carried out some more tests and diagnosed her.

The girl was found to be suffering from primary pulmonary hypertension in the lungs and was referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Doctors prescribed Viagra, better known as a treatment for male impotence, and the drug has since transformed her life.

Janis said that she was surprised to learn the nature of the treatment that saved her daughter's life.

"I've never seen her so happy. She can run, jump, skip, all the things her friends do. We have a wheelchair for her if she gets exhausted, but we've never had to use it, and I hope she grows out of it before we need to," she added.

Natalie, a rare childhood sufferer of the condition, no longer experiences fainting episodes but the condition remains potentially fatal.

It is a progressive disorder that causes abnormally high blood pressure that affects arteries in the lungs. The Viagra works by opening the arteries and improving the blood flow.