The Catalyst Issue 13 | Winter/Spring 2012 | Page 21

hospital with Scott & White Healthcare.
After undergoing cardiopulmonary
resuscitation (CPR) and an emergency
cesarean section, which their daughter,
Lila, did not survive, Mrs. Gilmer
was flown via helicopter to Scott &
White’s hospital in Temple, Texas.
Mr. Gilmer was left to mourn the
loss of his beautiful daughter and pray
desperately for the life of his wife, his
best friend since childhood and mother
of his four young children who were at
home, unaware of what was happening.
“When she arrived at the hospital,
her blood pressure was dangerously low
and she was requiring massive doses of
adrenaline to help her heart continue
to pump,” says Kenton J. Zehr, MD,
director of the Division of Cardiothoracic
Surgery, and professor of surgery at
the Texas A&M Health Science Center
College of Medicine. “She required
intermittent external chest compressions
to support her circulation. Her aortic
valve needed to be replaced.” After the
successful valve replacement surgery,
Mrs. Gilmer’s heart function was so poor
she had no chance of separation from
the heart-lung machine. She was placed
on ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation, an advanced mechanical
pump system that allows patients’ hearts
to rest so they can eventually function
again on their own. She was moved
to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit,
where she remained under the care of
Dr. Zehr, his colleague cardiothoracic
surgeon Enrique Gongora, MD, and an
entire team of specialists.

Scott & White Healthcare is the only
Texas hospital system outside Houston
that offers ECLS, or extracorporeal
life support. It is lifesaving equipment
for patients with acute heart or lung
failure, accident victims, and even those
who become dangerously ill due to
illnesses like the H1N1 flu virus. ECLS
includes ECMO and VADs, ventricular
assist devices. Whether they’re used
separately or in tandem, VADs and
ECMO are making a huge difference
for many patients.
“The ECLS equipment is a pump
system that basically does the work
of the heart and the lungs and allows
them to recover,” says Dr. Zehr. “We’re
not only giving cardiac and pulmonary
patients a second chance to live, but
successfully expanding the technology’s
use to other kinds of patients who just
two years ago would have died.”
ECMO temporarily relieves the
workload of the