My significant other is coming to the point where he’s been on VV ECMO for too long and it is starting to cause complications. There is a chance that his heart will stop so the doctor would like someone to be at bedside with him. Once ECMO is removed, the hospital will not put him on it again. Prior to permanently decannulating the ECMO, they do 6-24 hour trials where they remove the gas line and if the patient is stable and doesn’t decompensate, that’s when it is safest to remove ECMO; if they do decompensate, the gas line is reattached and they try again later. The first time he was having trials, it sounded like he was tolerating it the best that he’s ever had. Currently his CO2 has been really high and will be higher once removed. He really needs to have the ECMO removed—the longer he stays on it the higher the risk of organ dependence on the machine and greater the risk for even more complications. Because there’s usually a window where it is best to remove from ECMO and the patient is most likely to survive, we’re not going to know when the procedure will take place until the day of. The hospital will call and let us know, and then start the procedure promptly in order not to miss the best opportunity.
Has anyone ever experienced this or seen this? What has been your outcome? What’s the probability that someone in this situation will survive? What was the probability that someone who had your specific circumstances survived?
My dad
Has anyone else hit the wall at 8 months?
one final chance of survival 
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Is "You are in hospital" really reassuring?
