New Start are pleased to announce they have purchased 2 more ECMO machines for use on the Cardio Thoracic Critical Care Unit. These machines are frequently used in helping our patients recover post transplant. Above can be seen with one of the new machines from left to right – Nizar Yonan -Director of Transplantation and Trustee of New Start. Joe Higgins – a recent heart recipient and who was on ECMO post transplant for a few days, Pete Fawcett – ECMO co-ordinator and David Waters from Chalice who supply the machines.
Professor Yonan said
“The “Centri-Mag” mechanical support devices have made a huge impact on improving our ability to manage the sickest heart and lung failure patients referred to our unit. By using those machines expertly, we can support the heart when it acutely fails, also in acute lung failure, the machine can drive the blood of the patient through an oxygenator that can support both the heart and the lungs or just the lungs through a therapy called ECMO (extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation). By adopting this technology, we can keep patients alive until a long term treatment become available like a donor heart so the patient can have a heart transplant. Our experience with these devices has helped us keeping more than 60% alive and well long term, those patients would have certainly lost their lives with out the mechanical support
We are grateful to the New Start charity for purchasing 2 machines to the benefit of patients referred to the transplant program at UHSM”
