Jefferson Abington Hospital Becomes 1st In Suburban Philly To Offer New Medical Treatment

ABINGTON, PA — A local hospital has become the first in the Philadelphia suburbs to offer a new medical treatment designed to aid those who are critically ill.

Jefferson Abington Hospital in Montgomery County recently launched a program offering extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, for adults, a treatment that is designed to temporarily take over an individual's heart, lungs, or both, while they heal from serious disease.

The hospital says that while the technology may be available at other hospitals emergently, Jefferson Abington is the only healthcare facility to now offer the program in the four suburban counties of Philadelphia, which are Delaware, Chester, Montgomery and Bucks Counties.

According to the hospital, the ECMO technology works by removing blood from the body and pumping it through an artificial lung, with the machine essentially acting as an artificial heart and lung.

The oxygenator will place oxygen into the blood while at the same time removing carbon dioxide from the blood.

Patients undergoing ECMO treatment can be treated in a matter of days or weeks.

"At Abington, we utilize this highly advanced technology in our newly renovated, state-of-the-art Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit," Nawar Al-Rawas, medical director of ECMO services at Jefferson Abington Hospital, said in a statement. "It is the privilege of our team to be able to offer this critical care program to severely ill people in the suburbs, saving patients from having to be transported to Philadelphia and saving family members from having to travel there."

Al-Rawas, who served in a similar role while employed at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the city, said ECMO can be used for respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia, influenza, drowning, chemical inhalation, acute respiratory distress syndrome and other causes, according to Jefferson Abington Hospital.

The technology can also be used to treat patients suffering from COVID-19 who are experiencing severe respiratory distress due to the virus.

In addition, ECMO can be used for a variety of cardiac issues, such as heart attack, refractory arrhythmia, heart failure, pulmonary embolus and hypothermic arrest, according to the hospital.