More life saving technology is coming to local hospitals thanks to a special grant.
We sat down with one patient who told us if it wasn’t for this special technology, he doesn’t know if he would be alive today.
Back in August of last year, what started off as an asthma attack for Spencer Fenner ended in a trip to the emergency room.
That’s when his life took a dramatic turn.
FENNER : “I remember panicking and pressing the panic button for help and then everything went black…I had a seizure, I had bronchitis which led to acute respiratory failure and they put me in a medically induced coma.”
He told Channel 13 his lungs started to fail, not releasing enough oxygen into his blood and his organs were slowly shutting down.
He says doctors acted quickly.
FENNER : “ECMO saved my life for sure, I was on the machine for 36 hours and that is all it took to get my oxygen levels back to give my lungs a chance to rest for a second so they could recover.”
ECMO, or extra corporeal membrane oxygenation, is a procedure that provides critical heart and lung support for patients in critical need.