AN 8-month-old baby boy, who had almost died of pneumonia, was discharged from the Bao’an Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital on Wednesday after being hospitalized for two months, according to sznews.com.

The baby, identified as Doudou, was diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia at the hospital after he developed a fever July 2. As his condition worsened, the boy was transferred to the PICU and later diagnosed with adenovirus pneumonia, which has a high-mortality rate among children.

On July 10, Doudou’s lungs almost stopped functioning and his heart rate and blood pressure were both in decline. According to Jin Ping, director of the hospital’s PICU department, Doudou was on the brink of death because his chest X-ray showed that his alveoli had completely collapsed.

The hospital partners with Bayi Children’s Hospital in Beijing under the city’s “3R Project,” which aims to introduce top-notch medical experts and resources to Shenzhen.

Several medical experts from the Beijing hospital flew to Shenzhen for Doudou on July 10. Both sides prescribed Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) therapy for the boy.

ECMO is an extracorporeal technique for providing cardiac and respiratory support to a patient whose heart or lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to sustain life.

Doudou’s life was sustained by an ECMO machine, which worked as an “artificial lung” for 14 days, providing the doctors enough time to cure his lung infection. Four days after the cessation of ECMO, Doudou could breathe on his own as his lung function had recovered significantly.

According to the report, Doudou made a good recovery and was discharged from the hospital Wednesday.

ECMO saved the life of another baby who was also suffering from serious pneumonia last week. (Zhang Yang)