NCH invests in life-supporting ECMO machines

Reporter: Amy Oshier
Published: Updated:
ECMO
NCH has invested in more ECMO machines. (CREDIT: WINK News)

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the value of specialized machines that circulate the blood of very sick patients.

It gives the heart and lungs a chance to heal.

And now NCH in Naples is making a deep investment in these machines to help critical heart patients.

The machine is called an ECMO, which stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine.

It is one of the most advanced forms of life support. It does the job of the heart and lungs.

“We take the blood out of the body, we put it on a pump, and that can increase oxygen, remove Co2 for the lung disease,” said Dr. Gaston Cudemus, medical director of the ECMO program at the NCH Heart Institute.

The program is part of the new cardiac critical care unit within the Heart Institute.

“We can use this technology to buy time to make sure that the body and the brain and the rest of the organs get enough blood to the system,” Cudemus said.

This technology is getting a lot of use. NCH was the only health system in Southwest Florida that had even one of these life-saving machines when the pandemic hit.

“When people became sick with COVID and needed respiratory support, it brought light to the fact that we need to be at the top of our game. So it made it easy to get the hospital to purchase some of the equipment we need,” said Dr. Brian Solomon, a cardiac surgeon at the NCH Heart Institute.

The value is clear.

“We have four patients on mechanical support, all four for different reasons, one’s for respiratory support, one’s for cardiogenic shock after open-heart surgery, and two are for cardiogenic, long term shock,” Solomon said.

It’s a huge milestone for cardiac care, to circulate and oxygenate blood outside of the body.

Patients can be fully conscious and feel like they’re breathing normally while their heart gets the help it needs.

NCH can support eight ECMO patients at one time staying on the machine for hours or weeks.

“If I see a patient that is basically in a very sick condition, doing very poorly and we get them through, they go back home with their family. I think that’s what we call success,” said Dr. Ricardo Martinez-Ruiz, a cardiac anesthesiologist at the heart institute.

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