AirMed ECMO teams meet miraculous 3 year old

(December 8, 2010 - Birmingham) - Alexis Cormier of Hazel Green, Alabama, was born with HLHS, a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped. It stands for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. At age 3, she underwent a third surgery to help her symptoms, but after this complicated surgery, her entire heart was damaged beyond repair. She was immediately put on ECMO.

 

ECMO is a highly specialized treatment that stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. It is similar to a heart-lung machine and in effect, it removes the blood from the patient, oxygenates it outside of the body (removing carbon dioxide and adding oxygen) and then replaces it back into the patient. AirMed has the capability of transporting ECMO patients and all of the complicated equipment from one hospital to another’s critical care program. AirMed is one of only a handful of air ambulance programs in the world capable of this type of transport for both pediatric and adult patients.

 

After being placed on ECMO, Alexis’ hospital in Memphis requested she be moved to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, and AirMed's ECMO transport team was called into action. Only four days after her first ECMO transport flight, it was decided that Alexis needed to be transported again, this time to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, where she would receive a Berlin (artificial) heart.

 

Once more, the AirMed teams transported Alexis with their specialized ECMO equipment to UAB. This 3 year old who had struggled so much already in her short lifetime looked so small and helpless amidst all of the equipment. Her family held out for a miracle, but her will was strong and would not be denied.

 

Only four weeks later, members of the AirMed transport team traveled to UAB Hospital to find Alexis standing, smiling, brushing her teeth and splashing in the water at her hospital room sink. The only outward signs of any illness were a small feeding tube and two catheters under her clothing, connected at her lower abdomen. These catheters supply blood to her Berlin heart and return it to her circulatory system.

 

The Berlin heart device works by helping the right ventricle of the heart to pump blood to the lungs and the left ventricle to pump blood to the body. The bulk of the device is extracorporeal (outside the body); only the tubes are implanted. They emerge from small openings to enter the pump, a small round chamber, and the system is run by a laptop computer. The Berlin Heart is intended to be used as a bridge to recovery or as a bridge to a transplant, which Alexis will require.

 

As of December, 2010, Alexis is currently listed as 1-A on the nationwide heart recipient list, meaning she is among the top pediatric priorities.

 

"Every one of us at AirMed International is grateful to be able to touch a life such as Alexis Cormier’s during our day to day duties," says AirMed CEO Jeffrey Tolbert.  "While she still awaits a heart donor and her ordeal is far from over, she stands as a beautiful, smiling example of the power of the human spirit."