ECMO

The Heart & Vascular Institute, at Hartford Hospital, is among the few area hospitals to offer ECMO — an amazing procedure that directly oxygenates the blood so damaged hearts and lungs can rest and recover.

And we’re the only hospital in New England to offer portable ECMO, so we can even bring this lifesaving technology to other hospitals. Just one more way we’re striving to make more advancements accessible to more people.

ECMO for Healthcare Providers


What is ECMO?

For patients with respiratory and/or cardiac failure, time is indeed a matter of life and death. That’s why an innovative procedure known as Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), is helping to give the human body the time it needs to heal.

ECMO is performed by a machine that provides partial heart-­‐lung bypass for patients with severe, but reversible, respiratory failure and/or cardiac disease for whom other intensive care therapies have failed. ECMO is used only after medicine and a breathing machine (ventilator) have failed to improve the condition of a patient with respiratory failure.

What does ECMO do?

ECMO directly oxygenates and removes carbon dioxide from the blood, acting as a temporary artificial lung or heart outside the body that keeps life-­‐giving oxygen circulating inside the body — which can buy time for the diseased or damaged organs to rest and recover.

How does ECMO work?

When a patient is placed on ECMO, blood will flow through the ECMO tubing, pushed along by the turning motion of the pump, where it receives oxygen from the machine’s lung. This goes on until the heart and/or lungs are able to work on their own.

Portable ECMO

Hartford Hospital is the only hospital in New England currently offering “ECMO-on-the-go” whereby a team of specialists can bring the ECMO technology to another hospital when they have a patient who needs this life-saving technique.

ECMO for Healthcare Providers

Hartford Hospital is the only hospital in the region to offer a 24/7 mobile ECMO program composed of a highly trained team of clinicians. Find out how to refer a patient to our program.

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Meet our ECMO Specialists:

Name Specialties Location
Vlismas, Peter Paul, MD Vlismas, Peter Paul, MD 860.972.1212
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
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  • Hartford
  • Bridgeport
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Jaiswal, Abhishek, MD Jaiswal, Abhishek, MD
5.0 /5
75 surveys
860.972.1212
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
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  • Hartford
  • Bridgeport
  • Fairfield
  • Hamden
  • Hartford
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Bell, Jennifer, MD Bell, Jennifer, MD
5.0 /5
33 surveys
860.972.1212
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
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  • Hartford
  • Bridgeport
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Cheema, Mohiuddin, MD Cheema, Mohiuddin, MD
4.9 /5
188 surveys
860.696.5520
  • Cardiac Surgery
  • Vascular Surgery
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  • Hartford
Arora, Sabeena, MD Arora, Sabeena, MD
4.9 /5
79 surveys
860.972.1212
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Hartford
  • Middletown
  • Norwich
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Radojevic, Joseph Anthony, MD Radojevic, Joseph Anthony, MD 860.972.1212
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
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  • Hartford
Gluck, Jason Aaron, DO, FACC Gluck, Jason Aaron, DO, FACC 860.972.1212
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Nuclear Cardiology
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  • Hartford
  • Hartford
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Hammond, Jonathan Acton, MD Hammond, Jonathan Acton, MD
4.9 /5
85 surveys
860.696.5520
  • Cardiac Surgery
  • Hartford
Fusco, Daniel Stephen, MD Fusco, Daniel Stephen, MD
5.0 /5
87 surveys
203.576.5708
  • Cardiac Surgery
  • Bridgeport
  • Hartford
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Mai, Xingchen, MD Mai, Xingchen, MD
4.8 /5
56 surveys
860.972.1212
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Echocardiography
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  • Hartford
  • Norwich
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Scatola, Andrew, MD Scatola, Andrew, MD
5.0 /5
44 surveys
860.972.1212
  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
  • Echocardiography
  • Nuclear Cardiology
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  • Hartford
  • Bloomfield
  • Hartford
  • Winsted
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Yaffee, David, MD Yaffee, David, MD
4.9 /5
135 surveys
860.696.5520
  • Cardiac Surgery
  • Cardiothoracic Surgery
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  • Hartford

Our ECMO Locations: