On Oct. 18, 2024, several survivors and their families gathered with caregivers and physicians from the INTEGRIS Health Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute in a celebration of life. Click below to see a video from the event.
On Oct. 18, 2024, several survivors and their families gathered with caregivers and physicians from the INTEGRIS Health Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute in a celebration of life. Click below to see a video from the event.
Since 2014, nearly 1,200 patients have received ECMO, a lifesaving treatment for patients in critical condition. ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, works like a set of heart and lungs. It’s often a last-hope option when patients experience symptoms so severe that their heart and lungs no longer function on their own and don’t respond to medicine, a ventilator or other treatment.
During the reunion, survivors and family reiterated that the INTEGRIS Health ECMO team gave them a second chance at life.
“I am truly passionate about ECMO because it allows us to save the people that cannot be saved,” says Bob Schoaps, M.D., medical director for specialty critical care and ECMO service at INTEGRIS Health. “We’re talking about a population of patients that have already received exceptional medical care, but they’re on the maximum settings on the ventilator, they’re on multiple medications to support their heart function and blood pressure. They’re to the point where the other medical teams, despite delivering excellent care, have nothing else to offer the patient, but through ECMO we can still help them, we can still provide them an opportunity to stabilize and potentially recover from an otherwise completely fatal disorder.”
INTEGRIS Health was the first in Oklahoma to establish a specialized life support program solely devoted to adult patients facing imminent death. The system has a 24-hour ECMO hotline: 844-436-ECMO (3266). ECMO physicians are available 24/7/365 for consultation with other hospitals and doctors throughout the state.
