Originally inspired by a child suffering from croup, a group of Port Townsend healthcare workers has invented a device to help people with respiratory diseases.

The ChillyNeb nebulizer is designed to deliver chilled mist to a swollen airway, and also can be used by firefighters to deliver chilled mist along with oxygen to airways irritated by heat and smoke. It can also be used on pets.

The project started in 2011, when a 4-year-old boy came to Jefferson Healthcare in acute respiratory distress. Emergency department nurses Melissa Hoke-Kearns and Paula Sorbel and Dr. Justin Curran talked about the case and decided there must be a way to deliver chilled mist to a swollen airway via a nebulizer.

Nebulizers administer medication or solution in the form of a mist inhaled into the lungs. They're used in treatment of asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, and other respiratory diseases.

Hoke-Kearns, an RN who has worked in the Jefferson Healthcare emergency department for more than 22 years, said kids suffering from croup often improve when they're taken outside into chilly night air. "Cold helps reduce swelling and pain, and moist air is easier to breathe," she said.

They made prototypes of the device at home, and consulted a patent attorney. In early September, they started an Indiegogo.com fundraising campaign, aiming to raise $65,000 for an engineered prototype, international patent application and further research and development.

The device they invented uses "snowflakes" made from an evaporative fabric and stored within the ChillyNeb container until used. When the snowflakes are wetted and shaken, cooling is activated, and evaporation continues the cooling process.

Chief Gordon Pomeroy of East Jefferson Fire Rescue endorses the ChillyNeb, and participated in a video about what it can do. See the video on the ChillyNeb Indiegogo website: go to

Indiegogo.com and search for "ChillyNeb."