Hyderabad: Twenty-one days on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation helped one-and-a-half-year-old Sriyansh recover from the ill-effect of the turpentine oil he had drunk in the pre-school day care centre at Yusufguda in June. The child was kept in isolated room especially for ECMO to control the infection and also to allow the lungs to recover.
Dr Farhan Shaikh, head of the paediatric intensive care unit at Rainbow Hospitals where the child was under treatment explained, “We first put the child on ventilator support but the response was not very good. ECMO is a method of providing oxygen for the body from outside through the machine. In this the blood leaves through a catheter that sits in a large vein and connects to an oxygenator machine. The blood then returns to the body through an artery. The system gives rest to the lungs which are then able to recover. In the case of this child, the lungs recovered after 21 days and fortunately there was no bleeding in the brain or any other part of the body.”
Infection control is very important and a specialised team of nursing care is required for these patients where even the slightest error can deplete the chances of recovery. Parents D. Naveen and Bhraminni are very happy that their only child has completely recovered and is now doing well.
