ECMO life support gives Collier County man chance for return to normal life

A Collier County man could have a new life. Doctors at NCH in North Naples show how advanced life support is.

Rudi Figueroa arrived at NCH in North Naples, barely able to breathe. His family feared the worst.

Liliana Figueroa, Figueroa’s wife said, “I thought that I gonna lose him.”

After years of working in demolition, the 50 year’s old lungs were shot from inhaling dust and particles in his construction job.

Dr. Ricardo Martinez-Ruiz, a Cardiac Anesthesiologist at NCH Heart Institute said, “He presented with what we call ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome. So that requires aggressive care, including all the way to mechanical ventilation.”

With interventions failing along with his lungs, doctors with the NCH Heart Institute looked for a solution to save his life.

Dr. Brian Solomon, a Cardiac Surgeon at NCH Heart Institute said, “If we had not had this, he would have gotten into a worsening shock state where his organs were now perfused. And he would have had end-organ death.”

Doctors put Figueroa into a medically induced coma while a ventilator breathed for him.

“The last thing that he told us was that he loved us and that he thought that he not gonna survive. But that we have to know that he loved us too much,” Figueroa said.

Even that wasn’t enough. So doctors hooked Figueroa up to ECMO. An advanced life support apparatus is used frequently during COVID-19. It stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. It cycles blood out of the body, oxygenates it, and returns it.

“We always think of ECMO as a way of helping somebody’s heart. But it also is a way of helping their lungs,” Solomon said.

Figueroa was kept alive for a month by an artificial heart-lung machine, allowing his body to rest and heal.

The progress was slow but steady.

Brought back to consciousness, he’s now on a mobile ECMO allowing him to move more freely. His doctors believe teamwork carried him through.

Dr. Gaston Cudemus, Medical Director of the ECMO program at NCH Heart Institute said, “We have intensities cardiac surgeons and ECMO specialists really working together to get these patients on support quickly. So I think we did we continue to work really hard to try to get him back on track.”

Solomon said Figueroa came in with a 90% mortality from this condition. And I think at this point, there’s a phenomenal chance that he is going to make through and make it back to normal life.

“He is definitely filled with life. And he has again, a strong drive and I think that’s contagious,” said Martinez-Ruiz.

Figueroa is standing on his own two feet.

“I feel so happy now that my kid’s gonna have their dad again,” Figueroa said.

The next 8- 10 weeks will be critical. As doctors continue to ween Figueroa off supplemental oxygen they can begin to assess whether his lungs will recover or if he will need a lung transplant.