The much-awaited Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) treatment facility will become operational at the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar from tomorrow, the hospital authorities informed on Wednesday.
Hitherto, critically-ill Covid-19 patients requiring ECMO treatment were being airlifted to other States for availing the same.
The life-saving treatment facility, which will be the first in a government hospital in Odisha, will be launched on the occasion of the hospital’s ninth Foundation Day tomorrow.
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The city AIIMS had placed the purchase order for procurement of two ECMO machines in June this year. The first machine was delivered on June 29.
The second ECMO machine is likely to arrive by July 15, Sachidananda Mohanty (Medical Superintendent) had informed earlier.
"The institute has some faculty members trained in handling the ECMO machines. The institute is hiring more technicians to operate the same, which will help patients, especially those referred outside for treatment,” the city AIIMS had earlier said in a statement.
The Odisha government has already decided to install six such life-saving equipment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, and also at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
ECMO machine is used when all other medical options are exhausted for a patient when his/her lungs can’t provide enough oxygen to the body. It is also used for patients whose heart can’t pump enough blood to the body.
Health experts claim that four out of 10 COVID patients are getting cured by the ECMO treatment.