AIIMS-Bhubaneswar Receives First ECMO Machine

Bhubaneswar: After months of uncertainty, the AIIMS-Bhubaneswar finally received one ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine on Wednesday.

A team of specialist doctors, including Dr Rudra Pratap Mohapatra and Dr Siddharth Sathia (Cardiologists), Dr Krishna (Paediatrics) and Dr Satyajit Mishra, Head of the Department of Anesthesiology, has been trained to run the machine.

Since nursing staff are yet to undergo training, the hospital authorities have issued necessary instructions in this regard. A patient undergoing ECMO treatment has to be kept under watch for 24 hours and hence, the presence of a staff nurse is necessary.

It may be mentioned here that the AIIMS authorities had hired one ECMO machine from a private hospital for the treatment of the BJP leader Pradipta Naik.

According to sources, AIIMS had planned to make the ECMO unit functional last year following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, it got no response to the e-tender floated in November 2020 since there is no domestic manufacturer of the machine.

Earlier this month, AIIMS-Director Dr Gitanjali Batmanabane had told the media that a purchase order has already been placed and the Indian agency of a foreign company has assured to deliver the machine by the end of this month.

The premier health institute is expecting a second machine in the next three months.