Comment by seriocomic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by seriocomic | Hacker News Reader

I'm alive now because of this machine/technology (well, maybe the truth more lies in the fact that I was geographically close to where an ECMO machine was available when I fell ill).

I fall in the more rare category of ECMO patients as one machine wasn't able to process/oxygenate enough volume safely to keep me alive and so I had two running in parallel - making my situation even more privileged by being at a hospital (Alfred Hospital - Melbourne, Australia) that had that availability.

I spent 7 days hooked up to the ECMO machines after my lungs failed due to Pneumonia > ARDS - and complicated by other organ failures. 19 days in total unconscious in ICU. You can read about my experience here - https://www.seriocomic.com/rhetoric/fragility

Clearly, the choice of this treatment/intervention should only be used in the most extreme cases and when there are few other options. But I'm all for having this type of life-saving medical treatment more widely available so that people less fortunate than I can continue to receive the gift of life.

Thank you for sharing. I am glad you made it through that.

When you mentioned that you needed two machines, I thought perhaps you were especially obese, but that does not appear to be the case from the pictures you shared.

Edit: Why am I being downvoted? I was curious about why two machines were needed? From the link he shared, he seems a normal sized male.

From his's wife's diary, it was necessary because the insertion site for the original was not working as expected:

"Wednesday, 27th of August 2015 – Day 9

The nurse explained to me that they put another line in your neck, just to get extra line of blood to the lung machine as you need more oxygen to keep other organs working well. Your lung still is quite sick, the tube into your lung wasn’t working much comparing to the one from the lung machine."

A little more context:

"Monday, 25th August 2015 – Day 7

Your oxygen level requirement is 100% now, in case during night time at 3am, you need more oxygen, and there is no way they can feed you more here in Knox. So they need to cut a hole in your leg to put a man-made lung to pump extra oxygen in your body (as your lung is too inflamed), which can only be done in Alfred hospital."

it seems a machine does not fulfill 100% requirement of a grown adult so in case where the lung function is low enough they would need two.

The diary your fiance kept is amazing. Glad you made it through that.

Thanks - so am I! I was quite impressed when I found out she had kept these notes, and given I was completely in a parallel universe with delirium during that whole time it helped join all the dots.

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