2014/15 University Hospital Foundation Annual Report: Supporting Worl | Page 16

Portable life support for patients too sick to move
“The Mazankowski
Alberta Heart Institute
was built to be a
world leader in cardiac
care and research.
Community support
will ensure that the Maz
maintains its position as
a world leader.”
Dr. Robert Welsh, newly-appointed
Zone Clinical Department Head,
Cardiac Sciences, and Maz cardiologist.

Adults and children suffering from acute cardiac or respiratory failure can become
so sick, so quickly, that by the time they get to the Maz, it may be too late.
Especially if they live outside Edmonton.
“When a patient in Grande Prairie is suffering acute cardiac or respiratory failure,
every minute matters,” says Dr. Gurmeet Singh, an intensivist at the Mazankowski
Alberta Heart Institute. “If we can get to that patient and start ECMO treatment
right away, they stand a much better chance of getting to the Maz alive.”
ECMO stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation — highly specialized
technology that keeps patients alive by assuming the roles of their heart and lungs
— but it’s better known as life support. The ECMO program at the Maz is second
to none in Western Canada. And with over $250,000 raised during the recordbreaking 630 CHED Heart Pledge Day 2015, the program got even better with the
addition of an ECMO Transport System, or portable ECMO.
“With a portable ECMO, we can travel to the patient and initiate life support the
moment we arrive, instead of bringing the patient back to the Maz and then
starting life support,” explains Dr. Singh.

More
About the
MAZANKOWSKI
ALBERTA HEART
INSTITUTE

Watch & Learn See – and hear –
what goes on at 630 CHED Heart
Pledge Day at the Maz

14

University Hospital Foundation
Annual Report 2014-2015