WARSAW - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), an advanced form of life support, has helped save the lives of some of the sickest COVID-19 patients.
ECMO is essentially a pump with a device that takes blood out of your body and puts it back in, but in that process, it puts oxygen in and takes carbon dioxide out.
A medical team at MU Health Care has been using ECMO devices since 2017 to treat patients with severe heart and lung conditions.
During the pandemic, the ECMO devices were used for those who fail every medical treatment prior and are the most severe cases of COVID-19.
Warsaw resident Levi Genes was an example of a patient in need of ECMO.
“...they just took my, my oxygen level. and I think... it was 68. And so they admitted me right away," Genes said. "And I sat in the, I don't remember the exact amount of days, but I sat in the hospital for more than nine days, just doing breathing treatments. And I had lost 30 pounds, just while I was in there doing the breathing treatments. and then I signed off to let them intubate me. And then I really can't remember much from, little blotches of memory from that point."
Dr. Shyam Shankar medical director of ECMO at MU Health Care, said Genes came to the hospital at the peak of COVID.
“He unfortunately didn't do well on the ventilator and we put him on ECMO," Dr. Shankar said. "He was actually one of our longest runs on ECMO. He was on ECMO for more than 60 days. And that's something that we don't commonly see prior to COVID, where we've put them on ECMO for this long,"
Researchers at Vanderbilt University say the devices cut the risk of dying from COVID-19 in half.
Genes only has a few memories of his time in the hospital. But one was about his late father who was lifeflighted to MU Health Care and passed away, all while Genes was being treated for COVID.
"But the people from MU brought him up on my floor, which he wasn’t even supposed to be on my floor because he had sort of a heart problem," Genes said. "And they unhooked all my machines and wheeled me in there to his room so I got to see him before he passed away."
Before Genes was released from the hospital, he had to perform tasks like walking to the sink and washing his own hands.
“I'm still recovering. I'm not 100% by any means," Genes said. "I'm a lot stronger, of course."
Genes said he is still able to ride his motorcycle, but in very hot weather or heavy lifting he still has difficulty breathing.
His main goal while he was in the hospital was to get out of bed and get home.