DENVER, Colo. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — More than 356 thousand people in the US suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital each year, and as many as 80 percent die before ever reaching the ER. Now, when standard CPR isn’t enough, doctors are using an advanced approach to give some of the sickest patients a chance
When a heart stops, the clock starts ticking.
Every minute without CPR, the chance of survival can drop by ten percent. Immediate CPR can double the odds of making it. But for some patients, chest compressions, shocks, and medicine still aren’t enough.
Chris Tems, MD, Medical Director of the Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Program at HCA HealthONE Aurora says, “Cardiac arrest is as sick as you can possibly be.”
At HCA HealthONE Aurora, doctors are using an advanced form of resuscitation called ECPR.
“ECPR uses a machine called ECMO or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation,” explains Doctor Tems.
It’s a heart-lung bypass machine used right in the ER taking over the work of the heart and lungs. Until now, it’s been primarily used in the ICU for people with severe heart or lung failure.
The goal isn’t just to restart a heart, it’s to buy time — time to get a patient to the Cath lab, remove a clot, open a blocked artery – precious time for a patient who otherwise may not survive.
Doctor Tem explains, “With most patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, nationwide survival is around 9 percent or so. What we’re seeing with our ECPR program is patients who’ve gotten CPR for even up to an hour, we’re having two-thirds of our patients survive neurologically intact.”
For the right patient, all of it adds up to one thing: a second chance.
“it’s taking somebody who would not, without this therapy, have otherwise survived and it is returning them to their family,” says Doctor Tem.
Doctors stress ECPR is not for every cardiac arrest patient. The best candidates are people who were functioning well before their collapse, had a witnessed arrest, received immediate bystander CPR, and have a cause doctors believe they may be able to reverse, like a blocked artery, a large blood clot, or severe hypothermia. Patients with prolonged downtime, serious underlying illnesses, or signs of irreversible brain injury are much less likely to benefit.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; & Chuck Bennethum, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/about/cardiac-arrest.html
https://newsroom.heart.org/facts/cpr-cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-and-updated-guidelines-2025
* For More Information, Contact:
Cassie Shetler
cassandra.shetler@hcahealthone.com
720-244-9610
