What exactly is ECMO that is being use on Jayalalitha?
December 05, 2016  00:45
Earlier in the evening Apollo hospitals, Chennai, in its bulletin said Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was on extracorporeal membrane heart assist device following her cardiac arrest.

What exactly is ECMO, Wikipedia provides the answer: 

'Also known as extracorporeal life support (ECLS), it is an extracorporealtechnique of providing both cardiac and respiratory support to persons whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to sustain life.' 

Wiki further says: 'This intervention has mostly been used on children, but it is seeing more use in adults with cardiac and respiratory failure. ECMO works by removing blood from the person's body and artificially removing the carbon dioxide and oxygenating red blood cells. Generally it is only used in the later treatment of a person with heart or lung failure as it is solely a life-sustaining intervention.'

You can read about it here.
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