Doctors save pneumonia patient with ECMO

The 44-year-old female patient left hospital on June 4, after 15 days of treatment in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), said Nguyen Van Kinh, Director of the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases.

“A patient living in Hanoi was hospitalised on May 18 during a severe emergency: high-fever of 40 degrees Celsius, chest pains, bad cough, X-ray film showing injury to the lungs, breathing by machine,” Dr Vu Dinh Phu, ICU chairman, said. ICU doctors decided to treat her using ECMO technology the next day, after discussion with hospital professors.

After eight days of treatment the patient could breath by herself, without a breathing machine, Dr Phu said. ECMO was a highly-effective resuscitation measure and shortened treatment time in her case.

ECMO technology originated in America and has been applied widely in Britain and Taiwan. It is not used much in Vietnam because it is very expensive at VND130 million (US$5,700) per case, according to Dr Phu.

The hospital is the highest-ranking treatment center in the country. It has been very successful in treating patients with infectious diseases.