Bhubaneswar: Odisha will get six extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines used to treat critical Covid patients by July end, Director of Medical Education & Training (DMET) CBK Mohanty said Saturday.
Informing that Odisha has already received two such machines and the training to operate the machines is underway, Mohnaty said that the six machines will be installed at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
The need for ECMO machines was felt when its demand suddenly soared as doctors prescribed the treatment for critical Covid-19 patients suffering from lung ailments.
Many Covid-19 patients were airlifted to different cities since no government-run hospitals had this facility earlier. Several patients including former MLA Naveen Nanda’s son Sambit Nanda succumbed due to the non-availability of this facility in the state.
ECMO treatment is said to cost Rs 2 lakh per day.
Doctors prescribe a Covid-19 patient for ECMO treatment when the lungs are fully damaged and the patient requires ventilator support. With this machine, blood is drawn out of a patient’s body and mixed with oxygen using a special bypass pump circuit and then the oxygenated blood is pumped back into the patient’s body.
PNN