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Health
Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton

$10M grant to boost cardiac arrest care in Minnesota

An EMS vehicle has its lights on during the daytime.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, can increase survival chances for people in cardiac arrest. The technology can also travel, giving emergency personnel a better chance to save lives across Minnesota, a University of Minnesota doctor tells MPR News.
Courtesy of Fairview Health Services

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There's a renewed push underway to help Minnesotans survive cardiac arrest.

A $10 million grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust will nearly double the number of cardiac intensive care beds at M Health Fairview in the Twin Cities and fund a training center dedicated to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, a technology that takes blood from a patient’s body, oxygenates it and then returns it through an artery.

It allows physicians to perfuse critical organs even when a patient’s heart or lungs aren’t working, giving them more time while doctors try to save their life, University of Minnesota Medical School Dr. Demetris Yannopoulos told MPR News.

After 30 minutes, the chances for survival from CPR alone dip into the single digits, according to Yannopoulous, a leader in the research into extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. With ECMO treatment, he said patients have a significantly higher chance of living.

The technology can also travel. “We have also built a big ECMO truck … basically, a cath lab or emergency department on wheels (that) allows us to basically move very quickly and get to the patients much faster,” Yannopoulous said, noting the opportunity to help patients in rural Minnesota.