Wilford Hall team transports critically-ill infant

  • Published
  • By Sue Campbell
  • 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) --  A team from Wilford Hall Medical Center rushed to Temple, Texas, Feb. 9 to save the life of a critically-ill baby.

An 8-month-old little girl was suffering from respiratory failure at Scott and White Hospital in Temple. Despite the efforts of the medical team there, she was near death and her doctors felt she needed to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, to survive.

ECMO is a machine that provides cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are so severely diseased or damaged that they can no longer serve their function. The Temple hospital did not have pediatric ECMO capability and the child was too unstable to be moved prior to being placed on ECMO support.

Wilford Hall was the only medical center with an ECMO team capable of reaching the child in time to place her on ECMO and move her to an ECMO center for the remainder of her care.

The Air Force team traveled to Temple on Feb. 9, placed the baby on ECMO and transported her to Christus Santa Rosa in San Antonio on Feb. 10.

"The mission went very smoothly and the infant was transported by ground without difficulty," said Maj. (Dr.) Melissa Tyree, director of ECMO transport services at Wilford Hall. "Although she continues to have a long road to recovery, she is currently much improved and stable on ECMO. Her parents and the Scott and White medical team were very thankful for our efforts."

Wilford Hall is the only medical center in the Department of Defense with ECMO capability and the only long-distance ECMO transport option in the world. 

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