Hands on robotics specialist hailed a hero in the clouds

A doctor who specialized in robotics is getting applause for his hands on approach to treating a toddler who was suffering an asthma attack on a transatlantic flight.

On Sept.18, Dr. Khurshid Guru of Buffalo, New York was flying from Spain to the U.S. when he was informed there was a toddler on board crying and struggling to breathe.

The child’s parents informed Dr. Guru that they had accidentally packed his asthma medication in their checked luggage, which was now stowed below.

“The child had developed a cold,” Guru told ABC News. “We were three or four hours into the flight. I think the cold and popping of the ears and crying. He got worse.”

Dr. Guru measured the child’s oxygen levels and found them to be very low. It was at this time he decided the child needed to receive treatment on board the flight and waiting to land would be too dangerous.

He does not usually work with pediatric patients and specializes in robotics, but as a medically trained doctor he understood what the most effective treatment would be for the toddler.

Knowing there was an adult inhaler on board, the dilemma was figuring out how to use it effectively to treat a panicked child. Adult inhalers require the user to hold the medication in their lungs for a certain amount of time, something that would be nearly impossible for a screaming child to do.

So Dr. Guru got innovative.

Using the inhaler, a water bottle, a plastic cup and an oxygen tank, he fashioned a very elementary nebulizer.

The device allowed for a mixture of the medication and oxygen to be inhaled by the child whose condition improved.

“As the bottle went near to the child’s face, he pushed it away,” Dr. Guru told ABC News. “I got a water cup and made a hole in the bottle and focused it to his face… told [the parents] to keep it there. Within about half an hour and two treatments he was sounding much better.”

Dr. Guru wants this story to be on every parent’s mind when they are packing to travel with children.

“I told the father then that the most important thing is that you never ever leave these medications away,” Dr. Guru said. "I wanted to make sure that everyone realized that we need to carry these things.“

This is the third time Dr. Guru has had to help a fellow passenger on board a transatlantic flight, and the doctor said it seems he will just have to get used to it.

Dr. Khurshid Guru will be receiving the Thomas B. Tomasi MD, PhD Hope Award for his work on robotic surgical simulators called the RoSS next month.