A lifesaver

The 34-year-old European male was admitted to Belhoul Speciality Hospital with complaints of pain and weakness in his limbs. He was diagnosed as having Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease of the nerves, which can be potentially fatal if not treated properly. The patient developed paralysis of respiratory muscles and had to be put on ventilator machine to assist his breathing.

"In this condition, the patient develops antibodies that damage the nerves in the body. Unfortunately, the patient did not respond to the injections meant to arrest the disease," neurology specialist Dr Suresh Nair said. "At this point, the antibodies would have to be removed by other means."

"To remove the antibodies, we had to remove the entire plasma volume of the blood by a process called plasma exchange," said nephrologist Dr Paulose Thomas. "Due to the patient's unstable blood pressure, we had to use an advanced type of plasma exchange machine that is gentle on the patient."