We told you last week about a study which foundthat more than ten percent of all babies worldwideare born too early.One common problem in preterm babiesis respiratory disease.The lungs are the last organs to develop.But a medicine called surfactantcan save babies struggling to breathe.The story of this lifesaving medicinebegins with a discovery in nineteen fifty-nineby a researcher named Mary Ellen Avery.She told this story in two thousand fiveto Children's News at Children's Hospital Boston,where she was the first womanto serve as physician-in-chief.She had been doing researchat the Harvard School of Public Health.She was asked to find out more about the foamthat forms in the lungs of peoplewith a condition called pulmonary edema.At night she worked in a hospital delivery room.She saw many premature babieswith hyaline membrane disease,now called respiratory distress syndrome.She examined the lungs of babies who had died.She found there was no air in their lungs,and she discovered why.In her words, "The material that was important-- the foam -- was missing,and they were struggling to re-inflate their lungs.Nature put this foam, or surfactant,in the lung to lower surface tension.You cannot keep air spaces inflated without it."Babies usually develop this coatingwhile they are in the womb,but many premature babies do not.Finally, in nineteen eighty,a Japanese pediatrician, Tetsuro Fujiwara,published a study about an artificial surfactant.It could be given to a baby and,within minutes, the baby could breathe.The medical community had taken yearsto accept Dr. Avery's discovery.But she said in a Harvard Medical School interviewin nineteen eighty-two that she never gave up.MARY ELLEN AVERY: "Hanging in there is key, I think.Knowing what you want to doand not being easily discouraged is key,particularly in research.You know, you're always moving into the unknown.And you can spend months trying to prove something,only to find that you made some terrible mistakesand you have to be willing to say 'six months of my lifeand my hard work went down the drain,'and you have to start over-- that's terrible discouragement."Dr. Anne Hansen in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unitat Children's Hospital Boston remembers the first timeshe heard about Dr. Avery.It was in nineteen ninety,when the government was in the process of approvingan early surfactant called Exosurf.ANNE HANSEN: "And the attending who I was on with said,'When you're on call tonight,if there's a baby who's born who's premature, you should watch very closely the natural history of that disease,because this is the last night before we're goingto start giving Exosurf to all our preterm babies,so this will be your last chance ever in your lifeto see what a preterm baby doeswhen they don't receive Exosurf.'And then he told me the whole story ofDr. Avery and her discoveries."Mary Ellen Avery was eighty-four years oldwhen she died last December fourth.And that's the VOA Special English Health Report.