39-year-old Lady from Hisar with severe respiratory distress gets new lease of life at Fortis Hospital Gurugram via ECMO support for two months
The Critical Care team at Fortis Hospital, Gurugram, successfully treated a 39-year-old female from Hisar who was adversely affected by Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) due to H3N2, swine flu & pneumonia and her oxygen levels were dangerously low even on maximum ventilatory support. A team of critical care doctors from Fortis Hospital Gurugram travelled to the local hospital in Hisar and put the patient on Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), post which the patient was immediately shifted to Fortis Gurugram accompanied by the doctors in an ECMO ambulance.
Hisar resident Mrs. Anita Rani was admitted to a local hospital in Sirsa with complaints of fever, and chills, that gradually subsided on their own with medication. But after a week, she developed severe breathlessness and visited a private hospital in Hisar, where doctors suggested and referred her to a higher center for ECMO insertion in view of refractory hypoxemia (severely low levels of oxygen in the blood). The patient was so unstable that she could not be shifted to Fortis Hospital Gurugram on ventilator support. That is why ECMO was inserted in Hisar& then the patient was shifted to Fortis Hospital.
Dr. Sandeep Dewan – Director & HOD – Critical Care Medicine at Fortis Hospital Gurugram said “The patient was diagnosed with H3N2, flu along with severe breathlessness due to ARDS and was immediately shifted to ICU. She was under protocolized management with ECMO, under regular monitoring. A multi-disciplinary team of doctors was involved throughout her treatment regime. Being closely monitored, her ECMO flows were adjusted according to the need of her body. The patient was on ECMO for 2 months, and after that within a week, the ventilator was removed and the patient was sent back to the local hospital in a stable condition with a tracheostomy tube in the neck.”
ECMO is a treatment that is given to patients with severe lung failure and heart failure when these patients cannot be managed with conventional treatments like ventilator support. ECMO is a machine that acts like an artificial lung and heart when both or one of the organs are in distress.
Dr. Munish Chauhan, senior consultant – of Critical Care Medicine further added “Patients who are treated by ECMO mostly suffer from COVID, swine flu (H1N1) patients, trauma patients, patients of heart attack or heart ailments and patients with a drug overdose. Mobile ECMO is a modality where ECMO is started on a patient who is in a remote area as the patient is too sick to be transported to an ECMO center without the machine.”
Fortis Hospital, Gurugram is always inclined to provide best-in-class clinical care and outcomes for every patient. The clinicians and support staff work diligently to deliver global clinical protocols and leverage cutting-edge technology for best possible results. Raising awareness about early consideration for ECMO therapy is very important so that timely intervention and proper treatment can be ensured.
