Cooper University Health Care announced it would offer extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy for the treatment of severe pulmonary issues and respiratory failure.

ECMO is a form of cardiopulmonary life-support, where blood is circulated outside the body by a mechanical pump so that compromised organs can rest and heal. Cooper is providing VV ECMO that is specific to patients with damaged and/or injured lungs.

“As an academic tertiary care health system, Cooper is known for providing advanced critical care services,” said Dr. Nitin Puri, program director, Critical Care Medicine and associate professor of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. “The addition of ECMO will provide critically ill patients with severe, but reversible, respiratory failure a new potentially life-saving treatment option without traveling extra distance,” Puri said.

According to Puri, ECMO mimics the natural function of the lungs by delivering oxygen into the patient’s blood. The ECMO procedure involves channeling the patient’s blood into a pump that sends blood through an oxygenator, which serves as an artificial lung, infusing the blood with oxygen and removing carbon dioxide and returning it to the patient.

According to Cooper, it is the only hospital in South Jersey to offer a multidisciplinary team approach to critical care including dedicated critical care physicians – called intensivists – who provide round-the-clock, on-site care. Because of this expertise, Cooper is a major transfer center with more than 7,000 transfers from area hospitals each year.