Mercy Hospital of Buffalo
Connections
News and announcements for associates, patients, and their families. Summer 2020
It’s That Special Mercy Touch!
Former patient Sal Buscaglia, at right, had a chance to thank his caregivers at Mercy for saving his life.
Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Famer and retired women’s basketball coach Sal Buscaglia celebrated life and the EMTs and hospital team who saved him during a Valentine’s Day reunion and his 66th Birthday celebration held at Mercy Hospital in February. It was a heartfelt reunion for the many people who helped save his life from the EMTs from the Jamison and Elma Fire Departments who used CPR and a defibrillator to get him to the hospital, to the team of doctors including cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists, neurologists, intensivists in the ICU and CVICU, to perfusionists and nurses on the ECMO team, to rehabilitation specialists and therapists in the MRU and so many others who played a part in his recovery. Sal spent 16 days at Mercy in June of 2019 after having a massive heart attack known as a “widowmaker” that has about a 6 percent survival rate. Following his hospital stay, he also went to cardiac rehab therapy. “As a college coach, I led teams of young ladies for over 39 years, and then I had another team save my life...you’re so special to me,” said Buscaglia at the reunion. “When you go home after work, I don’t know if you ever think about how wonderful you all are because of what you do.”
Dr. Harsh Jain, center, is surrounded by members of the ECMO team: (l.-r.) Courtney Sobkowiak; Angelina Barido; Wai Moy; Jenn Porterfield; Lena Quarentella; CVICU Nurse Manager Peggy Schlotterbeck; Liz Clancy; Dan Schwab; and Matt Bailen.
Saving Lives with ECMO Life Support Therapy There has been a lot of talk about the use of ventilators in the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19. But Mercy Hospital has another, less publicized medical device that can help the most critically ill COVID patients when ventilators alone are not enough. ECMO, short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a form of life support that uses a sophisticated machine to take over the functions of the heart and lungs when a patient’s organs are too sick or weak to work on their own. Similar to a heart-lung bypass device, ECMO is not a cure but rather a therapy that allows the heart or lungs to rest and recover, while giving physicians more time to effectively treat the disease. “ECMO is often the last line of defense in this COVID battle,” said Harsh Jain, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Catholic Health Heart Center at Mercy Hospital and Medical Director of the hospital’s ECMO program. “We’re fortunate to be among an elite group of hospitals across the country and the world to have this advanced technology and a highly skilled cardiac team to offer this lifesaving care.” Since the start of the outbreak, six COVID-19 patients have been treated with ECMO at Mercy Hospital, four of whom have recovered and are back home with their loved ones. “That may seem like a small number, but from a global perspective, there have only been about 1,900 COVID-19 patients worldwide who have been placed on ECMO,” explained Dr. Jain. “This is because not only are there very few hospitals around the world equipped with this technology—including just 264 out of 6,000 hospitals in the United States—but there is stringent patient criteria to use this therapy looking at such factors as age and health status prior to COVID.” Continued on Page 3