
ECMO Saved My Mother!
"Thank you is not enough to express gratitude to you and your team and the entire staff at Fortis Memorial Research Institute."
My name is Deepali Tomar. My mother suffered from total lung failure and was admitted in Apollo hospital Noida. As her condition deteriorated with every passing minute, she was put on a ventilator support system there. We were told she wouldn’t survive. With broken hearts, we were trying to accept the hard reality which was going to hit us any moment. A doctor who knew the entire case recommended ECMO, which was available at FMRI, Gurgaon. ECMO or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation is a technique of providing both cardiac and respiratory support to persons whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to sustain life. We immediately decided that we had to take this last chance of saving our mother’s life and brought her to FMRI.
My mother was admitted under Dr Sandeep Dewan, Director and HOD, Critical Care on 7th Aug with worsening respiratory distress sever hypoxemia. The doctors told us that she required high vasopressor support in view of unstable hemodynamics. After through discussion, VV ECMO was immediately initiated. My mother maintained well on ECMO and slowly her condition improved. We prayed to God for guiding us at the right time in the right direction. It took two weeks for her lungs to revive and once the condition was stable, she was discharged on 21st Sept.
My family and I are very grateful to Dr Sandeep Dewan and the entire critical team for bringing my mother back from the death bed.
Gratefully yours,
A daughter from Noida