CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The ECMO machine is being used as a form of lifesaving therapy for patients with COVID-19.
There are only three of the machines south of San Antonio and they're all in Corpus Christi. But They're only being used to treat a certain type of patient.
The machine is designed to filter blood and send oxygen filled blood back to tissues in the body. From the Rio Grande Valley to Corpus Christi, there are only three. Those three machines currently reside at Driscoll Children's Hospital.
Perfusionist and ECMO Coordinator for DCH Daniel Erpelding said that the hospital uses the machines to help those with heart issues, more than patients with COVID-19.
"Most of the patients that we're doing are after heart surgery," Erpelding said. "We're not doing as many COVID patients."
Since the pandemic, Erpelding told 3News, for patients who were very sick in the hospital with COVID-19 their ECMO machine would serve as "life saving" therapy.
"Most of the COVID-19 patients that come in get pneumonia, so they can't breathe by themselves with their lungs," Erpelding said. "What the ECMO machine does is basically does the breathing for them, adds oxygen to their blood, removes carbon dioxide just like the lungs would do. It allows for those patients to recover at a period of time depending on how long it takes for them to recover."
But there's a limit on which patients can get on ECMO at the hospital. Local Pulmonologist Dr. Salim Surani said that adults might not able to receive the same treatment as children here in the Coastal Bend.
"You mentioned the words 'children hospital' so when there are children, then they can take care of their needs but when there are adults, currently we do not have a dedicated ECMO unit or ECMO services which can provide extended duration of the time in the community," Surani said. "That's the reason they're being transferred to San Antonio or Houston."
An ECMO machine is not an all size fits all. As less than 10 patients from DCH have needed treatment from the machine.
"One would be for infants and pediatrics to a certain size," Surani said. "Patients that are probably in the 15 kilo all the way up to 15 kilos then we have larger patients where we can go higher."
Surani said that there is a reason why health care facilities can't all have ECMO machines.
"Not every hospital has the resources to be able to manage those patients, to be able to take care of those patients and have qualified people to actually run the ECMO machine," Surani said.
DCH said that there are special instances where their machine can be used for outside patients, but that request would have to come from a referral.
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