ECMO

[Paul D Boccocelli]

Possibly I’m the only misinformed member here. It would help those of us who are not versed in the IPF language to explain shorthand, I don’t know what ECMO is. Yes, I can Google it, but shouldn’t have to. Thank you.

[Adele Friedman]

ECMO stands for Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation. Extra-Corporeal means “outside the body”. It oxygenates the blood outside of the body, then returns it.  Whereas ventilation puts oxygen into the lungs and relies on oxygen transfering into the blood.

[Steve Dragoo]

@adele

Hey Adele,

That’s interesting.  I have seen O2 tents (mini-hyperbolic chambers) on Amazon from time to time but have no idea of their usefulness.

Stay well,
Steve

[Colin O Driscoll]

Hi,

ECMO is used where the lungs are no longer capable of exchanging enough oxygen and carbon dioxide, even when using HI-FLOW or intubation. It is used sometimes during a transplant operation if the lungs during the operation cannot meet respiratory needs.

 
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[Will]

ECMO requires major surgery.
My husband, who is the one registered to this site, was on the lung transplant list for 23 months. In a matter of days he went from having a mid-range LAS score to needing a transplant yesterday. When is CO2 levels became too high it was recommended that he be put on ECMO. It was an emergency situation, but we were assured this would buy him the time needed to get a transplant. Being on ECMO moves you to the top of the list. I got the call at work and by the time I got to the hospital, less than 20 minutes, he was on his way to surgery. He awoke from the ECMO procedure feeling great. Our spirit and hope had been renewed. It would just be a matter of days before transplant…or so we thought. We had spent 4 years waiting and hoping for this procedure. I return to the hospital the next day but my feeling great, upbeat husband is lying in the bed saying he just doesn’t feel well. I kept asking him to be more specific, thinking this would help the nurses. Finally his response was I feel like I’m dying. Within a matter of hours, his organs began shutting down. This procedure that was to be life saving, and giving him time for a transplant was now killing him. After a few days I was informed Bill was no longer a candidate for transplant, he was far to ill. With transplant no longer an option, I had to face the fact that the end had come.
My advice, before you agree to ECMO is to get all the facts. Do your research now, in case you have to make a quick decision. You read about Covid patients who were on ECMO for several months and are now doing great. That was not my experience. ECMO doesn’t have great percentages of good outcomes. My experience is that the procedure that was to be life-saving, was in fact life-ending.