Docs and Vets Save a Dolphin's Life in Unique Collaboration

A 29-year-old female was recently found to be suffering from extreme difficulty breathing while swimming. She was promptly treated by an unusual team of doctors and specialists - work that likely saved her life. And while that sounds like another day at the doctor's office for some, it should be pointed out that the patient in question was a bottlenose dolphin.

In nature, a dolphin that has developed breathing problems while swimming is not likely to last long. Thankfully, this dolphin wasn't in the ocean, but instead was at Island Dolphin Care in Key Largo, Fla. where she aided in therapy for mentally and physically disabled children.

About a year ago, the dolphin started "chuffing" (coughing) and showed signs of stress when swimming around during her regular work day. She was quickly isolated from the other dolphins and given antifungal medicine, for fear that she had a common but dangerous fungal infection of the lung.

Vets at the time recorded that she was responding well to the medication, but for some reason her airway stenosis (an abnormal narrowing of bronchus and related airways) persisted, growing worse as time went on. Soon enough, the dolphin could barely swim, with her blowhole remaining open for too long between breaths.

That's when, in an effort to save this animal, something remarkable occurred.

"Our case is notable, not only because of the animal involved, but also for the cross-disciplinary collaboration among specialists from far-ranging disciplines," Andrew Haas, director of clinical operations at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, recently told the Journal Sentinel.

Haas led and authored a case study of this intriguing event, noting in the journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society how not only veterinarians, but also clinical doctors and pulmonary specialists banded together to save this dolphin.

"Many of the medical treatments and procedures used in humans were developed and tested in animals, and many are used in the care of both," he added, explaining how they used a technique called balloon dilation to help coax the dolphin's airways open.

For once, as described in the study, the therapy dolphin received its own therapy, in which its lungs were physically trained to worked as they are meant to once more. The dolphin is now alive and well, back to helping children and swimming with ease.

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