Life support

As Royal Columbian Hospital’s Chief of Perfusion, Dustin Spratt is part of a unique team that is available 24/7 to take over the care of patients from throughout the region who are facing death because of failing lungs and/or heart. The Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) team travels to other hospitals to bring these patients back to Royal Columbian. A generous gift from Jeannette and Stan Hrescak recently helped to purchase the world’s smallest heart and lung machine for the ECLS team’s work. Maquet - Getinge Group, the company behind that CARDIOHELP system, also made their own gift to support the service.

Foundation: Perfusion is a medical specialty you don’t find at every hospital. What is it? DS: A perfusionist is somebody who uses mechanical means to circulate the blood through the patient. They use a heart and lung machine to take over the function of those organs. Predominantly, open heart surgery is where we use the heart and lung machine. It allows the surgeon to do the surgery.

Foundation: What is ECLS (sometimes known as ECMO)? DS: Extracorporeal Life Support is a modification of the heartlung machine to a smaller, more compact version that can be used outside the operating room. We can use that in places like the Emergency Department or the Intensive Care Unit to support patients that are in critical heart or lung failure. It’s really used to support the heart and lungs when they are failing and the patient is at imminent risk of death.

Foundation: What makes Royal Columbian Hospital’s ECLS program unique? DS: We’re very proud that we were the first in BC and currently still the only ECLS retrieval program in the province. Because of the large geographic region in Fraser Health, we realized we needed to be able to move this piece of equipment to other facilities for patients who are deteriorating very quickly because their heart and/or lungs are failing. When we get the call, an ambulance will take us to the outlying hospital. We can quickly place the patient on to ECLS and stabilize them. That allows us the time to safely transport them back to Royal Columbian to continue more advanced care that is not offered at the smaller facilities.

Foundation: How have donors supported the team’s work over the years? DS: I don’t think we would have had a retrieval program without generous donations to Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation. A few years ago, donors helped us purchase the first custom ECLS stretcher in Canada. Recently, donors have funded this new, lightweight heart and lung machine that will make it even safer and quicker for us to deploy and transport patients.

Wesgroup is a proud supporter of the Royal Columbian Hospital and an advocate to advancing the health care facilities in BC’s fastest growing region.