For treating COVID-19 patients, there is growing concern about what is needed to keep people alive whether it's ventilators, oxygen tanks, or highly specialized ECMO machines — meaning extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The ECMO machine pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.
Dr. Erick Itoman, director of the ECMO Program at The Queen's Medical Center, calls the process “recovery therapy.” The machines won’t fix a patient with heart and lung problems, but they will buy them time to heal. Often called “the machines of last resort," they're being tapped to treat COVID-19 patients.
At Queen's, the machines are credited with saving the lives of about eight or nine COVID-19 patients, Itoman said.
ECMO machines are only used after a patient fails to respond to oxygen through a nasal cannula and then ventilation.
"If you fail the ventilator, then a select few will be able to go on to ECMO," he said. "So far, most of our (ECMO) patients have survived. I think our survival rate is about 80% above the national average."
"So far, I haven't run into a situation where we've actually run out of machines. It's actually hard to find people that qualify for the machine," Itoman said. "Picking the right patient is very important because we need to have people that are going to be able to recover, because the machine, like I said, doesn't actually fix you, it just buys you time."
Even if they did run out, Itoman said they have the ability to make more machines from other components.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Aug. 31, 2021.
