LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We often celebrate medical breakthroughs for humans because we see ourselves in them. We can imagine someone benefiting that we know, maybe even ourselves. But we want to take a minute to shout out a group of experts at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago who recently made history by successfully administering anesthesia to a whale in captivity.
KARISA TANG: Undertaking something like this - surgery and anesthesia on a 1,000-pound aquatic mammal - is a really big challenge.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That's Dr. Karisa Tang. She's the vice president of health at the Shedd Aquarium. She led the experts who helped 12-year-old beluga whale Kimalu after trainers noticed a lump on the back of the whale's head and neck. After a careful examination and CT scan, they discovered the lumps were a sign of a large network of cysts near Kimalu's blowhole.
TANG: We assembled a team of a lot of experts - experts in marine mammal anesthesia and surgery and experts in anesthesia of large animals, whether they be swimming or terrestrial.
FADEL: After extensive meetings with experts who worked on elephants and rhinos, it was go time.
TANG: We took her out of the water and put her on a foam mattresses so they could be nice and soft. And we did the surgery out of water and then safely returned her back to water when she was breathing again.
FADEL: It took a couple of hours to perform the surgery. And then, Tang says, the team waited to see if Kimalu would wake up.
TANG: Getting her back in the water and supporting her while she took breaths on her own and started swimming was incredibly full of emotion in the entire room. You know, all 40 people were in there, holding their breath and watching with relief and joy and, you know, at the same time, mixed with worry.
MARTIN: Kimalu still has a long journey ahead, but she's not doing it alone.
TANG: She has people watching her all the time, interacting with her. She actually has a companion beluga with her right now, so she is getting a lot of TLC.
MARTIN: This medical miracle in Chicago, Tang says, is only the beginning of what they can do to better the lives of wildlife.
TANG: Going to be able to say, we can make this - the welfare of this animal improve through a procedure safely. I mean, that's a really big deal, and that really opens the door for better care for animals all over the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY BELUGA")
RAFFI: (Singing) Baby beluga in the deep blue sea. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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