Machine used during COVID, saves lungs of near-drowning victim

Reporter: Amy Oshier
Published: Updated:

A week out from her birthday, Lewonshe Miller found herself recuperating in a hospital. She was celebrating turning 21 in Naples, taking a Jetski ride with her boyfriend. On the date she was born, she almost died.

“The wind and the waves [were] very, very, very choppy, so that’s what flipped us off, and that’s when I started feeling like, ‘Oh, my God, like help, help,'” Miller said.

Her lungs filled with saltwater, and she lost consciousness. Miller was drowning, said NCH Dr. Gaston Cudemus.

“When she came to the hospital, she was very sick; we were not able, on just a ventilator, to provide enough oxygen,” said Cudemus, “so we had to rush her to the OR to put in an artificial lung.”

Seeing Miller’s lungs suffered a traumatic injury, the team at NCH’s Rooney Heart Institute saw it as an opportunity to use their ECMO machine.

An ECMO machine (CREDIT: WINK News)

ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. It is essentially an exterior heart-lung machine. Only a handful of hospitals have one in Florida. These machines were in high demand during COVID-19.

ECMO cycles blood out of the body, oxygenates it and removes CO2. Then it returns the blood back to the body. It temporarily performs the function of the heart and lungs.

It is often referred to as a treatment of last resort. Used in patients with severe COVID, it gave the lungs a chance to rest and heal.

Click on the video to see Miller’s rapid recovery.

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