Fighting for Air: My Commitment to Newborns

Ola Didrik Saugstad (born 1947) earned his MD (1973) and PhD (1977) from University of Oslo, Norway. In 1980-81 he was post doc with a Fogarty grant from National Institutes of Health at Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. From 1986-2017 he was senior consultant of Neonatology at Oslo University Hospital and from 1991-2017 professor and Director of Department of Pediatric Research, University of Oslo. He was visiting research associate at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at University of San Francisco 1986 and from 2018 Adjunct professor of Pediatrics, (Neonatology) at Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University, Chicago Illinois.In this autobiography, he writes about his way from childhood and how his Christian faith developed. We follow him in medical school, in Oslo, his research in Sweden and Oslo, and how this changed the present concept that newborns in need of resuscitation at birth instead of given pure oxygen should be given air. This discovery resulted in new international guidelines, improved resuscitation routines, and prevented the death of several hundred thousand newborns each year.Saugstad has traveled all over the world giving lectures about newborn resuscitation and health. He has been given numerous international and national awards, such as the Landmark Award by American Academy of Pediatrics (Perinatal section). He is an appointed honorary member of a number of national associations and an honorary doctor and professor at international institutions. In addition to his engagement for the smallest among us, Saugstad has been involved in the debate about Biotechnology and Chronic Fatigue syndrome.