Boy, two, takes Viagra every day
HE IS only two but he takes Viagra four times a day – and without it he would die.
Calvin Muteesa was first prescribed the impotence remedy aged just three months.
Now he is believed to be Britain’s youngest regular Viagra user, having taken the drug — for up to six times a day — for the past 30 months.
Calvin has pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare condition which means his blood pressure is dangerously high. This starves his lungs of oxygen-rich blood.
The youngster struggles for breath and his heart has to work twice as hard to force blood to his lungs. Viagra relaxes his pulmonary artery, which carries blood to the lungs, and allows more blood and oxygen through.
Striding on … little Calvin Muteesa
FRANK BARRETT
Calvin’s mum Maureen was warned that tests had revealed that her baby would be born with bowel and kidney problems.
After he was born he had corrective surgery when he was just a day old. But fetal scans could not pick up his lung problem.
Maureen, who also has a daughter, Belinda, eight, says: �When Calvin was little you could see his chest going up and down and at times he was struggling to breathe.
�We all thought it was something to do with his kidneys.�
Doctors realised something was seriously wrong when he was just three months old and what appeared to be a simple cold quickly turned into bronchitis.
Single mum Maureen, 35, from Thamesmead, South London, recalls: �I woke up one morning and went to get Calvin’s milk. When I took it to him his eyes were not moving and he was almost not breathing.
�His heart was racing and I was terrified it would stop. I called an ambulance and he was taken to the Royal London Hospital.�
Tests revealed that the boy’s oxygen levels were dangerously low and medics gave him more.
Maureen says: �Every time they tried to get him off the oxygen it was almost as if he had stopped breathing.
Support … Calvin, his sister Belinda and their mum Maureen
�It was like I was dreaming. To see your child go from having a cold to intensive care and being put on a ventilator was terrifying.
�When they told me there was something wrong with my child and no cure it hit me so hard.
�It was like someone saying you are going to die.
�They started giving him Viagra straight away.
�When I first saw the packet I didn’t know what to think. I asked the nurse, ‘Why on earth are you giving my son that, it’s for something completely different.
�But you could see the difference as soon as he started taking it. It was amazing.�
She admits she has had some funny looks when she tells people her son is on Viagra — and a lot of questions.
In the past doctors have used a short burst of the sex drug to help a premature baby with breathing problems.
And ten-month-old Ben Hayes, from Belfast, took the blue pills for several months before surgery to correct a heart defect.
Small boys do not react in the same way as adults who take the drug. Viagra only triggers an erection if there is already a desire for sex.
Calvin now takes a liquid dose of the medicine and Maureen is careful never to leave home without a spare supply.
Once, he was in hospital for another problem and nurses missed three doses.
Maureen says: �The next time I saw him he was in critical care with a machine helping him breathe.�
Calvin is too young to understand what is wrong but does sometimes get frustrated at the limitations of the breathing tube that gives him extra oxygen 24 hours a day.
Maureen says: �It has been a long and painful journey.�
It has also meant Calvin’s sister has had to grow up quickly.
Maureen says: �Belinda is so good with him. She can see if something is wrong with the pressure on his oxygen and knows how to adjust it. She’s a big help.
�Some days it is very, very hard, but when Calvin smiles you forget all about the problems.�
Maureen hopes her boy will soon be able to attend nursery but worries about the risks of infection. She knows the slightest cold could land him in intensive care.
Visitors to their home are banned if they have a cold. There is no cure for Calvin’s condition and in the long term his best hope is a heart-lung transplant.
But until then, he will keep taking the liquid love drug.
