Seton Medical Center is the only Central Texas hospital with the life-saving technology
Austin, Texas (March 22, 2011) - A Central Texas mother of three is alive today and able to hold her newborn baby, thanks to a new life-saving technology at Seton Medical Center Austin (SMCA).
Cynthia Short was hospitalized because she contracted H1N1 (swine flu) in her last month of pregnancy. Her condition quickly deteriorated and doctors were forced to deliver Cynthia's baby. When the new mother's condition worsened, the treating hospital transferred her to the SMCA intensive care unit where doctors put her on a newly acquired technology called ECMO or extra corporeal membrane oxygenation.
Often considered a last-ditch procedure when traditional techniques have failed, ECMO can offer a treatment alternative for patients with rapidly worsening pneumonia as well as other causes of life-threatening lung failure.
"ECMO is recommended for the sickest of the sick, when other treatments are ineffective," Jordan Weingarten, MD, Critical Care Specialist and medical director of the ECMO program at SMCA and Cynthia's treating physician, said.
After 17 days connected to ECMO and two weeks of rehabilitation, Cynthia is now back at home with her family.
"ECMO saved my life," said Cynthia. "I wouldn't be here with my three kids if doctors hadn't put me on it."
ECMO is a heart-lung machine similar to the device used in open heart surgery. It provides respiratory or cardiac support - and sometimes both - to patients whose lungs and hearts are so severely diseased or damaged that they cannot function adequately.
"While ECMO doesn't treat the underlying disease, it allows time for the lungs and heart to recover and begin working again," Dr. Weingarten explained.
The membrane oxygenator, a key device of ECMO, acts as a lung, adding oxygen to the blood and removing carbon dioxide. Special tubes, or cannulas, are put into blood vessels that go directly into the patient's heart or bloodstream. By using a pump, the tubes transfer the blood from the heart to the machine where the blood receives oxygen and carbon dioxide is removed. The blood is then warmed to body temperature and returned via the cannula back to the body. When the patient's condition improves and his or her lungs or heart are strong enough to function properly, the patient is ready to be removed from ECMO.
Weingarten says the procedure is complex and often requires a team of over 35 physicians, nurses, perfusionists, and respiratory therapists for each individual ECMO case, which does not include the team of lab technicians that provide critical life-saving patient information. Patients require 24-hour care while they are connected to the device, which may last a few days or several weeks.
While ECMO has been around since the 1970s, improvements to the technology and to monitoring systems have renewed interest in it. In Central Texas, the technology has been available for complex pediatric patient cases at Dell Children's Medical Center since April 2010. The accessibility of ECMO at SMCA now offers this procedure to critical adult patients, whom otherwise would be transported out of the region.
Since being discharged from the hospital just two weeks ago, Cynthia has shown improvement each day, although she still gets winded climbing stairs and playing with her children. She is very grateful for the technology.
"I didn't realize how much pregnancy would compromise
my immune system," said Cynthia. I missed six weeks of my
baby's life. If I knew then what I knew now, I would not have
thought twice about getting a vaccination."
Seton is proud to have four hospitals – the only hospitals in Central Texas - that have earned the