Bhubaneswar: In a remarkable feat of critical care, doctors at AIIMS Bhubaneswar have successfully treated a 49-year-old woman police officer from Odisha’s Jharsuguda, who was battling life-threatening Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), bringing her back from the brink after nearly five weeks on advanced extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support.
The officer was first admitted to a private corporate hospital in Bhubaneswar on April 18, 2026, with severe pneumonia. Despite receiving the best available treatment, including mechanical ventilation and prone positioning, her condition worsened rapidly as her oxygen levels continued to plummet. On May 7, she was transferred to AIIMS Bhubaneswar in a critical state with profound hypoxemia.
Upon arrival at the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) in the middle of the night, a specialized team led by Dr Srikant Behera, an Intensive Care Medicine expert and ECMO specialist, immediately initiated veno-venous ECMO (VV-ECMO) therapy to take over the function of her failing lungs. The patient remained on continuous ECMO support for 36 days — from May 7 to June 12 — while receiving comprehensive intensive care. Her lungs gradually began to recover, allowing doctors to successfully wean her off ECMO on June 12.
She was taken off mechanical ventilation on June 27, had her tracheostomy tube removed on June 29, and was shifted from the MICU to the general medicine ward on July 6.
By July 18, she no longer required any supplemental oxygen.
After regaining full independence in her daily activities, the officer was discharged from the hospital on July 24.
Executive Director of AIIMS Bhubaneswar Dr. Ashutosh Biswas congratulated the multidisciplinary team on this significant clinical achievement. “This case highlights AIIMS Bhubaneswar’s growing capability in advanced intensive care and extracorporeal life support,” he said, adding that the institute is establishing itself as a leading centre for such complex treatments in eastern India.