Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport, LSU Health Shreveport and the Juan Zuniga Family officially opened the hospital’s new ECMO Center of Excellence July 21.
It is located inside the Academic Medical Center on Kings Highway in Shreveport.
ECMO is short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. An ECMO machine pumps blood outside the body, removes carbon dioxide, adds oxygen and returns it to the body. An ECMO machine takes stress off a patient’s heart and lungs so they can recover.
IN 2017, Juan Zuniga was shot in the chest outside his family’s restaurant during a robbery. Juan spent months in the hospital. He was placed on an ECMO machine twice during that time so his remaining lung could heal. The Zuniga family made a donation to the hospital, which allowed it to purchase an additional ECMO machine. The machine was delivered shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave the Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport team an additional piece of equipment to care for COVID-19 patients.
Hospital leaders and the doctors who use ECMO say this donation will give hope and life to other patients like Juan. Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport is recognized as a Center of Excellence by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), which signifies a commitment to exceptional patient care.