Artificial heart breathes life into critical H1N1 patient

Doctors had given up on 57-year-old Srinivas, a former employee of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), who was on ventilator for over 40 days after being diagnosed with influenza A(H1N)1 infection. Srinivas was down with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a grave kind of lung failure.

“We received a call from a city hospital on August 14. We were informed about a H1N1 patient who was on the ventilator for over 40 days with ARDS. Srinivas was referred to us for extra corporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO) system treatment which we had been trying out on H1N1 patients,” said Dr Binoy Chattuparambil, consultant cardiac surgeon, Narayana Hrudayalaya.

ECMO is a kind of an external artificial heart. It purifies the blood by oxygenating it. “A lung affected by ARDS requires at least a month to recover. During this period, ARDS supports the heart and gives the affected lung the rest that is required to clear the infection and regain its original functions,” Dr Chattuparambil said.

Doctors at Naryana Hrudayalaya too were not confident that the ECMO would work out for Srinivas. They had tried it out on one patient earlier. The first patient was put on the machine for 40 days and weaned off it. However, after weaning off, the patient’s lungs could not regain their normal functioning as they were badly damaged and the patient breathed his last.

But Srinivas was luckier. “The patient was maintained on ECMO for 15 days. His condition gradually improved and we could disconnect the machine,” said Dr Chattuparambil. Speaking to DNA, Santosh, son of Srinivas, said: “Nobody thought my father would survive. I had doubts when we brought him to Narayana Hrudayalaya. But now my father is perfectly all right.”

Srinivas, who was discharged from the hospital on Monday, said he was feeling well. He had a bout of cough and cold for a week before he was admitted to a hospital where he was detected with H1N1. He was then put on Tamiflu and was sent to ICU as his condition deteriorated.

Srinivas’s recovery holds hopes to hundreds of people who are falling victim to the H1N1 virus. Though ECMO had been used in cases of cardiac problems, it is for the first time that it has been used successfully in the country in a case of lung failure arising out of H1N1 infection.

“Now that we are confident about the system, we will be spreading awareness on it. We should be spreading awareness on the same issue,” the doctor said.