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- Some of what Dr. Bartlett
wished to do was thought to be crazy.
You were going to take a baby,
and you were going to make an incision in the neck,
and then you were going to tie off
the carotid artery.
And then, you were gonna put a tube into the artery
and a tube into the vein,
and you were gonna attach this
crazy machine.
But, you could see
the excitement in everyone
at being able to
apply this new technology.
It's saving babies
who you knew otherwise were going to die.
- ECMO is an abbreviation for
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
What that means is the use of an artificial lung
attached outside the body, that's extracorporeal,
to take over the function of the lungs or the heart
of patients who have severe lung failure
or heart failure.
- ECMO started in the early 1970s.
And Dr. Bartlett was responsible
for developing the technique.
In the early studies in adults
and eventually in the successful course of a newborn
on ECMO.
- The little patient that was the 2000th patient
is fitting because our very first successful patient
was a newborn infant.
And this technology has been used widely for newborn infants
for decades now.
- I found out that my child was gonna have
a diaphragmatic hernia.
And pretty much in between my first and second trimester,
doctor found some complications
and they sent us down here to the University of Michigan.
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He was put on ECMO
I believe it was in within the first 24 hours.
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- Sometimes, we have a hint that patients
are going to need ECMO,
particularly babies who have lung problems in utero
so that the ultrasound of the pregnant mother
can identify the problem as it did in Victor's case.
So, the obstetricians know
that it would be wise to have that baby delivered
at a place that has ECMO capability.
- It gives us time to treat the underlying cause
of why patients' lungs or their heart fail or both.
It provides them
the opportunity to heal.
It provides us the chance and time to treat the cause.
We don't have to hurry it up.
We don't have to hope that the patient can be stable
through all of this.
- There's been huge evolution through the years.
The technology we use now
makes ECMO safer,
the complication rates are less.
It's simpler to apply.
So, we can apply the treatment
to a broader population of patients.
- They can, you know, come off of this machine
and be normal, functioning human beings, walking, talking,
and come back to their families.
- We're ready,
ready to hold him, ready to squeeze him,
and kiss him as much as I want to.
And I go home.
- It's such an incredible achievement
and such a big impact on people
and on society and humanity.
- He's gonna be victorious in his sickness, in his illness.
And hail to the victors
'cause Michigan is gonna help our baby.
So, that's what we came up with, Victor.
And he is Victor Mario Bryan.
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