The acute respiratory distress syndrome in childhood is a rare disease, but as in the past still plagued with a high mortality rate. It is caused by severe pneumoniaes or infectious diseases with multiorgan failure, aspiration, trauma or immunodepression. There are no therapeutic guidelines based on controlled studies. Therefore different therapies i. e. high frequency oscillatory ventilation, nitric oxide application, surfactant therapy, extracorporal membrane oxygenation or a combination of these methods are used. We present the case of a 4 (3)/ 12 year old boy, who suffered from an acute lymphatic leukaemia. Caused by immunosuppressive therapy he got a severe broncho-pneumonia. During ventilation therapy an acute respiratory distress syndrome occurred. Due to a surfactant application over 7 days with a doses of 360 mg/kg body weight this RDS could be dominated. The extubation was possible after 17 days of ventilatory support. 3 weeks later the lung function was normalized and the chemotherapy resumed.