A four-and-a-half-year-old girl gets a new lease of life at a city hospital after undergoing an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) procedure, informed doctors. Swastika Agarwal, suffered from pneumonic infection and was diagnosed with a seizure disorder.
ECMO is a technique of providing prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to persons whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange or perfusion to sustain life.The ECMO circuit acts as an artificial heart and lung for the patient during the therapy.
Swastika had a know case of seizure disorder and was under treatment with multiple anti-epileptics. She underwent the ECMO procedure at the Apollo Indraprastha Hospital in south Delhi, said the spokesperson hospital.
“After another seizure episode she was hospitalised and diagnosed with early pneumonic infection. Within 24 hours, it spread to both of her lungs, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a condition which is characterised by the inflammation of lungs,” said the hospital.
Her X-ray showed that she had developed a patch in the lung which led to worsening of the respiratory distress.
Swastika was then put on “ventilator support with high settings”.
Despite this time, her oxygenation did not improve, which means her lungs were not filtering sufficient oxygen in the blood, doctors said.
She was then put on ECMO, which is essentially a technique, in which the machine takes over the function of heart and lungs, so the organs can rest and be treated upon.
Swastika was on ECMO from February 4-9, a doctor said, adding, that it had to be done because her “heart was functioning perfectly, her lungs were giving up”.
While the child’s vital life functions were supported by the machine, Dr. Muthu Jothi, senior consultant, pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at the Apollo Hospital operated on her lungs.
“During the procedure, one litre of fluid was drained from the right-side chest cavity and 200 ml was drained from left-side chest cavity.
This fluid had accumulated in her body due to pneumonia which was distressing the lung functionality,” Jothi said.
While she was under treatment, her lungs had the space an time to recuperate as their function was taken over by the ECMO machine.
With rest, they grew better and the next X-ray showed that the condition of the lungs has improved immensely, he said.
Highlighting the uniqueness of the case, he said, “It is a remarkable case because a child this young is not put on the ECMO machine for treatment.
Even if the hospitals have the technology in place, many a times the patient is too weak to bear the treatment.”