Brno hospital saves man after 110 minutes without heart activity 

The Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation method (ECMO) saved a man after 110 minutes without heart activity at St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, the head physician of the ECMO programme, Pavel Suk, announced in a press release on Friday. Last week, paramedics came to the aid of an unconscious man with severe hypothermia, whose heart stopped after an ambulance arrived. He was eventually transported by helicopter to the Brno hospital, where doctors decided to use the ECMO method, which can replace the activity of the heart and lungs. After 110 minutes, his heart started working again.

The patient had a body temperature of 25°C upon admission, but this hypothermia was in fact beneficial; hypothermia “paradoxically protects the brain from damage due to lack of oxygen, which gives a chance even to those who would otherwise have no hope of recovery," said Dr. Suk. The next day, the paramedics disconnected him from the ECMO devices and on the third day, in a stabilised condition, he was transferred to the internal medicine department.