Updated at 7:07 a.m., Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Kaiser announcing transfer of baby heart-lung program
Advertiser Staff
Kaiser Permanente, with the help of federal grants, will announce today the expansion and transfer of its emergency cardiac and respiratory care for newborn babies and pediatric children.Kaiser's Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) was created four years ago to treat babies with severe reversible cardiac or respiratory failure.
Kaiser doctors in Hawai'i created the ECMO in just six hours in October 2003, so they could save then-newborn baby TJ Prior. At the time, no medical air transport was available to the Mainland, where babies previously had to be taken to be treated.
Today, TJ and his family, along with three other families whose children required ECMO, will be among the attendees at a noon news conference when Kaiser announces the ECMO program will be transferred to its Kapi'olani facility.
Dr. Mark Ogino will continue to be the medical director, overseeing the program and teaching fellow physicians how to use the system.
The noon news conference will be held at the Moanalua Medical Center auditorium. Several doctors and dignitaries will be on hand.
