Life-saving Bristol artificial lung treatment marks one-year anniversary

A life-saving artificial lung treatment, which has been called a ‘miracle machine’, has marked its one-year anniversary in Bristol.    

The specialist service sees critically ill patients whose lungs have stopped working properly being treated using an artificial lung outside the body.  

The treatment known as ECMO - extra corporeal membrane oxygenation - is located at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) Intensive Care Unit (ICU).  

It is one of only six ECMO centres in England and has treated 16 patients so far, all of which have responded successfully to the treatment.      

Bethany King, one of the first ECMO patients in Bristol, was first admitted to Southmead Hospital during December 2022 with what was thought to be a chest infection. 

She was then transferred to the specialist care at the BRI for the ECMO treatment.         

She said: “Prior and during most of my experience of having ECMO I was extremely unwell and in an induced coma where doctors said it would be touch and go if I survived.

“As a healthy 20-year old, this was information my family never expected to hear. 

“Once the ECMO treatment commenced, I started to make small improvements and was slowly woken up from the coma.

“ At the time, I was so  desperate to have the ECMO treatment removed as it was limiting me to my hospital bed, and all I wanted to do was get up and go home. 

“However, upon reflection, ECMO along with the brilliant staff at the ICU saved my life and without it I likely wouldn’t be here.” 

The ECMO service is a collaboration between University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and North Bristol NHS Trust.

An artificial lung located outside the body puts oxygen into the blood and returns it to the body, temporarily doing the work of the lungs and giving them time to heal.

Patients treated by ECMO need the temporary life support system as all other types of breathing support have not worked.

Luke McQuillan was being treated for Type 2 respiratory failure at Swindon Great Western Hospital before he was put into an induced coma and transported to the BRI to undergo ECMO treatment.  

He said: “It’s very easy to take life for granted but something like this really makes you realise how fickle life is and how you need to treat every moment as a special one because we were so very close to not being able to share those memories and special moments and dull days together.” 

Councillor Paul Goggin, Lord Mayor of Bristol, who was diagnosed with pneumonia in June (2023) which later developed sepsis, spent three months in the BRI ICU. 

He added: “It was a very strange experience coming into the hospital in sunny June and leaving in cold October,  having missed five months of my Lord Mayor role – but I am trying to make up for it now!

“I’ve since seen the ECMO machine – it's the most unassuming piece of equipment that doesn’t really look like a life-saving machine, but it did indeed save my life. 

“Some people call it the ‘miracle machine’ and  for me, it really was.”