Rela Hospital saves the life of a Two-and-a-half-year-Old Child by successfully performing a rare ECMO CPR Procedure

In a miraculous feat Involving a multidisciplinary team of Doctors at the Rela Hospital, Master Kirthik a 2.5-year-old child from Thanjavur was pulled out of the jaws of death with the support of Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) a method of cardiopulmonary resuscitation using Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a machine that acts as a heart-lung bypass, which is very rare in India for a baby. The boy baby was suffering from fever for one week, had a lung infection and was admitted to a private hospital in his hometown. The boy had the first cardiac arrest at Thanjavur and an emergency call was made to Rela Hospital a Multi-Speciality Quaternary Care Hospital at Chromepet for ECMO and higher Management.

The team at Rela Hospital shifted the child in an ambulance on Ventilator support from Thanjavur to Chennai via road, the boy reached Rela hospital within 06 hours journey covering 322 km. The ECMO team in the hospital was prepared and ready for ECPR. On arrival, the child had a second cardiac arrest and multi-organ failure due to cardiac pulmonary arrest or Cardiorespiratory arrest and his oxygen level dropped to 80% due to respiratory failure ARDS, and his Heart function was only 5 to 10%.

ECMO was initiated immediately. The child slowly started improving and after 3 days his heart function was 30 to 35%. After 5 days the heart function was normal which is 60 to 65%. After 9 days lung function also returned to normal, and all other organ function was good. After 10 days he was weaned off the ECMO and his oxygenation remained stable. Later in a week, the child recovered completely and was discharged.

At Rela, we have the state of art ECMO, PICU and AICU teams who can handle any emergency irrespective of the location in the country and can save lives even in the sickest condition with world-class treatment, I congratulate the multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, and ambulance staff for saving the boy’s life said Prof Mohammed Rela, Chairman and Managing Director, Rela Hospital

ECMO or ECMO CPR is the most Advanced procedure for Resuscitation in a Cardiorespiratory Arrest patient. This particular case (Master Karthik) gives hope that with ECMO we can save a life of dying patient even in the last few minutes, said Dr C. Arumugam, Senior Consultant – Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery, Rela Hospital.

This case is very special because we did an ECMO resuscitation after cardiac pulmonary arrest or cardiac respiratory for a child at his age, transporting the boy in an ambulance was quite challenging due to the current pandemic situations however, meticulous planning and efficient teamwork from our doctor helped save the life of the child added Dr T Ravikumar, Senior Consultant, Paediatric Intensive care Unit, Rela Hospital