Prime the Pump

“A new, high-tech approach called ECPR can restart more hearts and save more lives. Why aren’t more hospitals embracing it?” The NYT Mag (Gift Article) with an interesting look at a new form of CPR that seems to be a game changer for saving lives—if your local health service provider has bought in to it. The Race to Reinvent CPR. We’re not talking about the kind of CPR you can perform in an emergency. This kind takes equipment. “Once the cannulas were in place — one in the vein and one in the artery — tubes that looked like garden hoses connected them to a machine that began sucking out Sauer’s blood. Inside that device, the blood passed through a membrane that functioned like an artificial lung, and then it was pumped, freshly oxygenated, back into Sauer’s artery to perfuse his body — and most important, his brain.”