[ S P O NS O R E D ]
ECMO Helps Critically Ill Young Patients
T
HE SANFORD CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL in Sioux Falls is
the only hospital in South Dakota that offers Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) treatment to critically ill and injured young patients. When DJ Veldkamp became severely injured in a motorcycle accident in Sioux Falls, his family was thankful
ECMO was available close to home. Because of his injuries, flying to a larger city for treatment would have been dangerous. Veldkamp’s care team decided to put the 21-year-old on ECMO when his health declined in the intensive care unit (ICU). They quickly moved him to Sanford Children’s. “Because of his age and size, we took him to the pediatric ICU to do the ECMO,” says Lesta Whalen, MD, medical director of Sanford Health’s Extracorporeal Life Support Program.
MidwestMedicalEdition.com
