Thanks Smokin’ Joe, Happy New Year! Please forgive if this is a redundant ping. The ECMO acronym stands for Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation, IIRC. Folks needing ECMO means that their lungs are out of action for all intents and purposes, if and until they can recover.
However, it might help to explain that ECMO is like renal dialysis. They take the blood out of the body using large catheters inserted in the neck and oxygenate it using the ECMO machine because the lungs have failed and are not able to oxygenate the blood, just like a dialysis machine filters the blood outside the body because the kidneys have failed.
Fortunately, while kidneys rarely recover their function after failure requiring dialysis, the lungs often do.
Unfortunately, ECMO machines are far more rare than renal dialysis units, and far more difficult to master and maintain due to complications rates, a steep learning curve, and infrequent use outside neonatal units:
...due to the high technical demands, cost, and risk of complications, such as bleeding under anticoagulant medication, ECMO is usually only considered as a last resort...Fatal sepsis may occur when the large catheters inserted in the neck provide fertile field for infection.
We can't rely on ECMO to pull as through if a widespread virulent H1N1 resurgence occurs.