Melania Bembea, director of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, discusses her research on optimizing outcomes after extracorporeal life support for children who are critically ill — a technology that is used in the form of heart-lung support for children with severe cardiac-pulmonary failure. This procedure is very invasive and can result in many complications. The goal of the research is to mitigate and prevent complications and treat patients with acute and chronic rehabilitations to optimize their recovery. Bembea became interested in the research after seeing the resiliency of children who are critically ill and how they are able to recover if cared for by a great team with advanced treatment. Bembea and her research team aim to minimize complications from high risk invasive procedures so that every child can survive and thrive.

Learn more about this research at https://hopkinschildrens.org/heart-research.