A year ago, Michelle Alvarado faced death, only to be saved by an extraordinary medical procedure.
Recently, she marked that one-year anniversary with Nick Black, the National City Fire Department paramedic who made the right call and helped save her life.
“I still feel like it didn’t happen to me,” Alvarado said.
Last May, when Alvarado experienced sudden cardiac arrest, Black made the critical decision to have her ambulance bypass the nearest hospitals and take her instead to Sharp Memorial Hospital in Kearny Mesa.
There, she was treated as part of an innovative San Diego County pilot project for patients in cardiac arrest.
For 86 minutes, Alvarado received CPR from Black, multiple first responders and Dr. Saul Levine’s Sharp emergency team to keep her blood pumping until she could be placed on ECMO.
“Somebody who has had cardiac arrest for 80 minutes, chances of survival approach zero,” Levine said. “And she walked out of the hospital. Truly amazing.”
ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a medical procedure for critical patients with life-threatening heart or lung failure. An ECMO machine is used to pump blood out of a patient’s body, add oxygen, remove carbon dioxide, and then pump the blood back into the body.
ECMO saved Alvarado’s life and was available for her because of a program that can be found in only a few locations around the world.
In 2022, San Diego County brought together local medical leaders to create the San Diego Resuscitation Consortium (SDRC) with the goal of saving lives. A new system of care was established, and a year later, the county launched the Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR) pilot program.
As part of the pilot program, paramedics identify eligible cardiac arrest patients and transport them to one of three participating hospitals, Sharp Memorial, Scripps La Jolla and Sharp Grossmont. Emergency physicians are available around the clock to immediately initiate life-saving treatment.
On November 7, 2024, UCSD Medical Center Hillcrest joined the pilot program, becoming the fourth approved ECPR Receiving Center in the county. Officials say the program is setting a new standard and transforming cardiac arrest care not just in the region, but worldwide.
Though not all patients are good candidates for the program, ECMO can bring those who are back from certain death. Michelle Alvarado is living proof.
Inset: Photo, Michelle Alvarado, on the bench, center, with her husband, Ronnie, surrounded by the Sharp medical team that helped save her life. (Photo courtesy of County News Center via YouTube)
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