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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

India : Artificial heart breathes life into critical H1N1 patient

Via DNA India :

" Doctors had given up on 57-year-old Srinivas, a former employee of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), who was on ventilator for over 40 days after being diagnosed with influenza A(H1N)1 infection. Srinivas was down with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a grave kind of lung failure.

“We received a call from a city hospital on August 14. We were informed about a H1N1 patient who was on the ventilator for over 40 days with ARDS. Srinivas was referred to us for extra corporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO) system treatment which we had been trying out on H1N1 patients,” said Dr Binoy Chattuparambil, consultant cardiac surgeon, Narayana Hrudayalaya.

ECMO is a kind of an external artificial heart. It purifies the blood by oxygenating it. “A lung affected by ARDS requires at least a month to recover. During this period, ARDS supports the heart and gives the affected lung the rest that is required to clear the infection and regain its original functions,” Dr Chattuparambil said."

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