ECMO Procedure Key To Mike Pressacco's Survival

By Nick Liard

There are a number of reasons why Mike Pressacco is still alive today, CPR, a team effort, but possibly the most important reason…a little known procedure.

This week we heard the Miracle off ice story of Pressacco who suffered a heart attack at 35 in the dressing room during a pick-up hockey game and then battled for his life.

On numerous times he was so close to death but the closest was when his heart was not strong enough to pump blood to his lungs.

Mike was put on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation or ECMO which is a circuit outside the body that helps oxiginate blood in absence of functioning lungs.

Perfusionist, Laura Fisher says it is the reason Mike is alive today.

Doctors say this was the worst condition anyone had every been in when they tried this procedure…the advise from Toronto General Hospital over the phone to Sudbury doctors was…good luck.

It’s a procedure done in just five hospitals in Ontario.