Creative Begging... ummm ... Fund Raising

I am sure there are very few people left in the Western Hemisphere who don't know that Eliza and I are walking in the March for Babies this year to raise money for the March of Dimes.

I could give you a long drawn out speech about the research the March of Dimes has funded and how it helped Eliza survive. But I'll just beg/fund raise in pictures:

Preemie lungs look like the bottom left picture compared to full term lungs seen in the bottom right picture:



In order to work (a/k/a "breathe" even with a ventilator) they need something called surfactant. Full term babies make surfactant on their own. Surfactant helps a baby's alveoli to open and stay open (a/k/a "breathe"). Babies born at an early gestation need artificial surfactant since their bodies are too young to make it on their own:



Thanks to research funded by the March of Dimes, some really smarty pants folks figured out how to make artificial surfactant. It is admittedly made from some very unappetizing things:

Curosurf is produced from minced pig lungs; Alveofact is a compound obtained from bovine lung lavage and Survanta is prepared with minced bovine lungs. (Right about now I am hoping that you are so thankful I haven't posted any photos of those images that you are reaching into your wallet).

Surfactant allows a little one pound girl who looked like this struggling to survive:



To grow into this happy little girl four years later:



So what do you day, how about donating a buck or two to Eliza Grace's March for Babies?