A child at St. Louis Children's Hospital has become the youngest in the world to have used Novalung, a device that mimics the function of a lung. This artificial lung machine had never before been used in a child, or in any patient in the United States, the hospital said.

"It really shows that it can be successful, and it really opens the door, I think, lots of other sick children that might have other kinds of lung disease where this device may be utilized," said Dr. Mark Grady, pediatric cardiologist taking care of the child, 2-year-old Owen Stark.

Owen has a disease called pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease of the lungs where the vessels become so constricted blood can't get through the lung, Grady said. When that happens, the blood backs up, and the heart suffers, he said. The child came to the hospital after having collapsed at home and going into shock.

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