Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center is saving more lives in the Baton Rouge region with the use of a complex medical therapy that is only available at four hospitals in Louisiana.

Last year, Our Lady of the Lake implemented an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program to provide life support to patients with respiratory or heart failure. ECMO allows a patient’s heart and/or lungs to rest when the body does not respond to other medical treatments and the organs cannot properly support normal body functions.

So far, Our Lady of the Lake has successfully used ECMO in a wide range of patient cases, including individuals with heart failure, pneumonia, pulmonary embolisms, Covid, trauma and more.

“Patients who otherwise may have died are able to have their lives sustained here by using ECMO as a bridge to other treatment. I’ve seen many of them ultimately recover and walk out of the hospital, which is amazing,” said Dr. Federico Guillermo De Puy, a cardiologist at Our Lady of the Lake. “ECMO also allows us to perform higher-risk procedures that we would otherwise not be able to offer at this location.”

Up to three patients can be on ECMO at any given time at Our Lady of the Lake. Dr. Owen Stell, medical director of the hospital’s ECMO program, said that in some cases, particularly among patients with severe respiratory illnesses, doctors may spend several hours trying other treatments before deciding to use ECMO. However, that decision may be made more quickly among patients with cardiac problems, particularly if they are unstable and not responding to medication.

“This is the highest level of life support you can provide,” Dr. Stell said. “In a lot of cases, people have failing hearts that can’t be maintained with smaller pumps or medications. For patients with respiratory failure, ECMO is used when a ventilator alone isn’t working. I credit the leadership at Our Lady of the Lake with understanding that ECMO is an important service, especially when it comes to keeping patients closer to home.”

A patient can remain on ECMO support for anywhere from a few days to several weeks. Once lab tests and imaging shows improvement, the patient is gradually weaned off of the ECMO support before being removed from it entirely as their heart and lungs are able to work on their own.

By having an ECMO program in Baton Rouge, Our Lady of the Lake is able to treat patients from the capital region, as well as cities like Lafayette that are within driving distance. Dr. Stell said the benefits are twofold, as it eliminates health risks associated with transporting critically ill patients and allows their family members to remain by their bedside without traveling long distances.

“These patients are so critical that anything could change at any moment,” he said. “They may also need to be on ECMO for up to a month at a time. If their loved ones had to drive five hours to see them or spend money on a hotel room for several days, that’s an added cost and stress that families don’t need. The fact that we can keep them in Baton Rouge is a huge benefit to them.”

In order to ensure the ECMO program is providing the best possible care, Our Lady of the Lake has provided extensive training to doctors, nurses and therapists who are responsible for working with patients who are in the program. The qualified ECMO team at Our Lady of the Lake has more than 30 years of experience with ECMO management and transport, as well as close affiliations with the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization and the American Society of Extracorporeal Technology.

“Some of us received training about ECMO during our initial training to become a physician. Others learned about it on the job,” Dr. De Puy said. “I think we did a really good job with our nursing staff as far as bringing in highly trained personnel to explain the nuances of the program. It makes me feel proud to be a part of Our Lady of the Lake.”