When Extracorporeal Mechanical Oxygenation Needs to be Turned Off

ABSTRACT

Lynch et al present a case wherein an extracorporeal mechanical oxygenation needed to be turned off. Erica Samson was an otherwise healthy 20-year-old colleae student when she contracted the coronavirus. Her intensive care unit (ICU) team was puzzled until Erica's mother told them that as a child she had had asthma on and off. Now that they had an answer for why her lungs were not improving, they flew Erica to the regional, tertiary care center with the expectation of putting her on ECMO. ECMO stands for extracorporeal mechanical oxygenation and is the most sophisticated machinery that could help Erica. As time goes on, and the ethical dimensions of ECMO technology when applied to COVID-19 continue to be assessed, what we can hopefully expect are appropriate regulations being developed and implemented, so as to better condition the outcomes of patients like Erica.