Home / Health / Miracle on the Helicopter: ECMO Saves Cardiac Arrest Patient
Miracle on the Helicopter: ECMO Saves Cardiac Arrest Patient
21 Aug
Summary
- ECMO helicopter program offers new hope for rural cardiac arrest survival.
- A patient met the crew who saved her life after a rare cardiac arrest.
- Minnesota aims to make ECMO therapy available statewide within five years.
In a remarkable development for emergency medical care, Minnesota has expanded its extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program to include helicopter transport, significantly boosting survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in rural areas.
This innovative approach, pioneered by Fairview Health Services, brings life-saving ECMO technology—which temporarily supports the heart and lungs—directly to patients via helicopter. Previously confined to major urban hospitals, the program's expansion aims to give all Minnesotans access to this critical therapy.
Michelle Brant, a Zimmerman resident, is a testament to the program's success. She experienced cardiac arrest in March and was saved by the rapid deployment of ECMO via helicopter. Months later, Brant joyfully reunited with the medical team and crew who were instrumental in her recovery.
The mobile ECMO program boasts a 50% survival rate among the 12 patients treated to date, with three of those lives saved through transport from Princeton. Dr. Jason Bartos, a leading figure in the program, expressed a vision for universal access, hoping to make ECMO available to every Minnesotan within the next one to five years.
