24-year-old ‘ECMO patient’ recovers, returns home after 12 days on heart-&-lung support

Kolkata: A 24-year-old woman from Kalighat who was put on artificial heart-and-lung support for 12 days during treatment for Covid-19, returned home on Monday, probably becoming the first in India to defeat the virus despite being on extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (

ECMO

) support.

“ECMO is a procedure in which the patient is given artificial heart and lung support. We do this in patients when the lung condition is extremely bad and ventilation support cannot help much. We draw in blood from the patient’s body and re-oxygenate it by increasing the oxygen level in her blood and re-infuse it into the body to improve saturation,” said Soham Majumdar, ECMO specialist at AMRI Hospital, Dhakuria. Majumdar pointed out that unlike the other two patients at Delhi and Chennai, the 24-year-old patient from Kolkata came out of both ECMO and ventilator, making her survival an important step in clinical management of Covid-19.

She was admitted to AMRI Hospital, Dhakuria, on May 17 with high fever and severe breathing distress. Doctors noted that her oxygen saturation had gone down to 34%, causing serious concern. Although she did not have any co-morbidities, doctors felt her obesity — she weighs around 100kg — could be a reason behind her severe condition. According to her father, she had been suffering from high fever and a sore throat since May 10. In a few days, she started having severe respiratory distress.

She was put on ventilation the next day. But when her oxygen level kept declining, doctors decided on ECMO support. “It is not always possible to clinically manage respiratory distress in Covid-positive patients with just ventilator support. In some cases, putting the patient on ECMO support becomes crucial, like in this case. And it helped us bring her back from a near-death situation,” said Mahuya Bhattacharya, critical care & internal medicine specialist.

She was on ECMO support for 12 days and brought down to ventilation support as her lung condition improved.

“We are very happy that she is going home. We believe she is the first Covid-positive patient in India to have survived after being put on ECMO support,” said Saswati Sinha, critical care specialist of the hospital.

“I gave given up all hope of taking my daughter home. I’m grateful to the doctors and nurses who helped her pull through,” said the patient’s father.

Earlier, the hospital’s critical care team discharged a Covid patient who had been on ventilation for 34 days.

“We are extremely proud of our critical care team, all other doctors and healthcare workers who are combating Covid-19 from the frontlines. We want everybody to know that we are equipped to support even the most extreme cases,” said Rupak Barua, group CEO, AMRI Hospitals.