ARDS: How It All Began

Looking back, years later, Dr. Thomas Petty would say that luck was a major factor in the recognition of acute respiratory distress syndrome and the discovery of the therapeutic value of positive endexpiratory pressure (PEEP) (1). At nearby Johns Hopkins Hospital, Drs. Mary Ellen Avery and Jere Mead proposed-on the basis of Clements's studies-that the diffuse alveolar collapse found in neonatal hyaline membrane disease (infantile respiratory distress syndrome) was caused by a lack of surfactant activity (3). [...]arterial blood gas measurements were not available for clinical use, and the only ventilators at Colorado General Hospital were a few Bennett pressure-cycled devices and one old iron lung.