New helicopter ECMO program brings lifesaving cardiac support to rural Minnesota

Every minute matters in cardiac arrest. Now, a first-of-its-kind program is saving those minutes-and giving more patients a chance to survive.

For the first time in the United States, a specialized ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) resuscitation team is flying by helicopter from Fairview East Bank University Hospital, known to many patients today as M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center, directly to patients experiencing cardiac arrest in rural areas of Minnesota.

Once our mobile ECMO team arrives, the physician initiates ECMO, a life-support system that temporarily takes over the work of the heart and lungs during and after cardiac arrest. After stabilization, the patient is transported to Fairview East Bank University Hospital for advanced care.

"The survival rate is almost zero if you can't get these patients on ECMO quickly," said Jason White, RN, nurse manager of emergency services at Fairview Northland Hospital, which is a partner site for the mobile ECMO program. "This gives us another opportunity to save a life, and another family member will come home."

Bringing ECMO to rural communities

Sudden cardiac arrest remains one of the most time-sensitive medical emergencies. In the United States, survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are less than 12%.

ECMO is changing that.

For patients with shockable heart rhythms, ECMO can significantly improve survival when initiated quickly, with the greatest benefit seen when it's started within the first hour. The sooner it begins, the better the chances.

Fairview East Bank University Hospital, home to an internationally recognized ECMO Center of Excellence, has long been a leader in this advanced therapy. Through Fairview's Minnesota Mobile Resuscitation Consortium (MMRC), teams have already been bringing that world-class ECMO care directly to people across Twin Cities using ground transport.

Now, that same expertise is reaching rural communities.

With support from Life Link III, a helicopter transports the ECMO team and equipment directly from Fairview East Bank University Hospital, while local EMS brings the patient to the nearest participating hospital - Fairview Lakes Hospital in Wyoming or Fairview Northland Hospital in Princeton. The teams meet in the emergency department, where ECMO can be initiated without delay.

Our program also partners with Ridgeview Emergency Medical Services in Waconia, where our ECMO team meets the ambulance and patient in the field, sometimes even at the patient's home, to begin delivering this lifesaving advanced care.

A complex mission, built for speed

Jason Bartos, MD, interventional and critical care cardiologist with M Physicians and Fairview, is the ECMO physician leading this helicopter-supported program.

"Time is everything in cardiac arrest," Bartos, who is also an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. "By flying the equipment and expertise directly to the patient, we're giving people in rural areas the same chance at survival as those in major cities."

While CPR and automated external defibrillators (AEDs) remain essential first steps, they don't always restore a heartbeat. In those moments, ECMO can provide a crucial bridge by circulating oxygen-rich blood and allowing care teams time to treat the underlying cause.

But ECMO is complex. It requires highly trained specialists to place large catheters into major blood vessels and operate sophisticated equipment. Because of these demands, most rural hospitals don't have the capability to offer it on-site.

Until now.

Ready to save more lives

These expansions are made possible by a generous grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, which supports initiatives that expand access to critical care in underserved areas.

The Northland Hospital emergency department team is thrilled to bring this first-of-its-kind program to the community.

"We want this to be a model for around the world so that more lives can be saved," White said.