It is too often a familiar story: struggling desperately to try to breathe, Anthony McGuinness sees his life flash before him. He was suffering from another asthma attack – and this one seemed to be as deadly as the others if not worse. The father-of-three, who is from New Oscott, Birmingham, was rushed immediately to hospital where he underwent life-saving treatment. But when things started to get wrong the medical staff had to resort to giving him the powerful horse tranquilliser Ketamine.
“I had an attack at home and called 999,” says Anthony, who suffers from the serious condition called Brittle Asthma. An ambulance came and rushed me to hospital where I stabilised and was expected to get better. But through the night my breathing deteriorated and when I woke up a nurse was sitting on my bed. Unbeknownst to me she had been listening to my breathing for a while.”
Within minutes I had three doctors from intensive care and a nurse around my bed who said I had not had a good night and needed to go to intensive care. My breathing deteriorated again and I was gasping so they gave me intravenous medication. But it still wasn’t working so I was given Ketamine. They actually give it to horses, it is quite a powerful drug”.
Since the very worrying incident where he was given the drug, the budding actor has made remarkable strides with his condition. That is all thanks to a new device that is being used at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital to monitor sufferers of asthma.
The device works by monitoring the levels of nitric oxide that is in exhaled breath, which is essential for diagnosing the condition and determining the amount of prescribed steroids that should be given to a patient.
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