Denver area life support recipients reunite with teams who saved their lives
For the first time, AdventHealth held a special event for people in Littleton and Denver to reunite with the care teams that saved their lives during heart or lung failure.
ECMO or Impella support is an advanced form of life support that can be the last treatment option when a patient's organs are failing. Care teams use this process to help patients in critical condition by taking over the work of the heart and lungs, circulating blood outside the body to add oxygen and remove carbon dioxide.
On Sunday, ECMO survivors and their families gathered for AdventHealth's first picnic to reunite them with the doctors and nurses who saved them.
Survivors like Jenna Phillips, a 35-year-old mother of three who contracted a case of strep throat, which turned into something much more serious. Now, Phillips tells AdventHealth that she has been given a new lease on life.
Phillips, along with AdventHealth doctors and nurses, spoke at the event.
The healthcare provider says the picnic was also a rare opportunity for clinical staff to see the patients they cared for in critical condition who are now recovering. AdventHealth says the patients were happy for a chance to express their gratitude and appreciation to the care teams that played a role in their recovery.
Although AdventHealth does not yet plan to make the picnic an annual event, they say a support group for ECMO survivors will launch soon. The group will serve as an ongoing support system for past and current patients.
