Mar Sleeva Medicity Palai has launched an advanced ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) facility, adding a critical life support capability for patients with severe cardiac and respiratory failure. The advanced ECMO facility was blessed by His Excellency Mar Joseph Kallarangatt, Bishop of the Eparchy of Palai, marking a major step forward in the hospital's advanced critical care services.

A new advanced critical care capability

Mar Sleeva Medicity Palai has commenced ECMO services for patients with severe cardiac and respiratory failure. ECMO, or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, is among the most advanced forms of life support in critical care, and until now it has been available only at a limited number of tertiary centres. Its arrival at Mar Sleeva places this level of support within closer reach for patients in the region.

An ECMO facility is more than a single machine. It brings together the ECMO circuit, a dedicated intensive care setup, and a trained multidisciplinary team of intensivists, cardiac and pulmonary specialists, perfusionists and critical care nurses who run the therapy around the clock. That combination is what allows a hospital to offer ECMO safely.

Blessing of the advanced ECMO facility

The advanced ECMO facility was blessed by His Excellency Mar Joseph Kallarangatt, Bishop of the Eparchy of Palai. The blessing marked an important milestone in the expansion of advanced critical care services at the hospital and the strengthening of its life support capabilities.

What the ECMO facility means for patients

Blood is drawn from the body, passed through an artificial lung that adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide, and returned to the circulation. Depending on what is failing, ECMO can be set up to support the lungs alone, or both the heart and the lungs together. This lets doctors rest the failing organs, ease off aggressive ventilator settings that can cause further injury, and treat the illness underneath.

• Support for the lungs In severe respiratory failure with a working heart, ECMO can take over gas exchange while the lungs are treated and given time to heal.
• Support for the heart and lungs together When circulation is also failing, ECMO can maintain blood flow and oxygen supply to protect the brain and other vital organs.
• A bridge, not a cure ECMO does not treat the underlying disease. It holds a patient stable as a bridge to recovery or to definitive treatment, which is why patient selection matters.
• Around-the-clock monitoring A patient on ECMO needs continuous intensive care, with the circuit and the patient watched and adjusted at all hours by the trained team.

When ECMO is considered

ECMO is not a first line of treatment. It is considered for patients whose heart or lung failure is severe but potentially reversible, and who are not improving despite full conventional intensive care, including the ventilator and medication. Situations where it may be considered include severe ARDS and other acute respiratory failure from infection, inflammation, aspiration or chest injury, and refractory cardiac failure where circulation cannot be maintained by other means. Started early in the right patient, ECMO is associated with better outcomes.

Strengthening critical care at Mar Sleeva

ECMO sits at the top of the ladder of organ support, above the ventilator and medication. Having it available means the hospital's critical care team now has a further option for the sickest patients, those who previously would have needed transfer to a distant ECMO centre at a point when they were often too unstable to move safely.

The facility is backed by the hospital's intensive care units, cardiac and pulmonary specialties, and round-the-clock support services, which together make advanced life support of this kind possible.

Frequently asked questions

This page is for general information about the launch of the advanced ECMO facility at Mar Sleeva Medicity Palai. ECMO is offered to carefully selected critically ill patients based on clinical assessment.