A 14-YEAR-OLD boy, who almost died of severe pneumonia, was saved after receiving Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) treatment at Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

The boy, identified as Yang, has been visiting the hospital frequently for over a year to receive chemotherapy since he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Yang had a fever last month and was brought to the hospital Sept. 7 as his condition hadn’t improved.

A lab test showed that Yang had Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), a serious infection caused by the fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii.

The boy was then transferred to the ICU as his lung infection was getting worse. In a bid to buy more time for the patient’s treatment, doctors administered ECMO treatment to Yang on Sept. 11.

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

Yang’s life was sustained by the ECMO equipment for nine days, which offered the doctors enough time to cure his lung infection. The boy recovered well and was discharged from the hospital 15 days later.

“Statistics from the website of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) show that only 33 PCP patients have received ECMO treatment globally and the success rate of the treatment is only 52 percent,” said Liu Yong, chief physician of the hospital’s ICU department.

(Zhang Yang)