On Monday, the Da Nang General Hospital announced that they had successfully applied the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) technique to save the life of 43-year-old Le Thi Tau from Quang Ngai Province’s Duc Pho District.

On 19 September, Tau had been rushed to the hospital in a very critical condition with a high fever, chest pains and arrhythmia.  Her blood pressure was too low to be measured.  After examination she was diagnosed with acute myocarditis, cardiogenic shock, and cardiac arrest.

The patient recovering after the treatment

In an attempt to save her life, the doctors performed an ECMO operation on her.  This is the most advanced type of treatment to have been carried out successfully at the hospital to save the lives of patients with myocardial inflammation. 

During the operation, the patient also suffered from pneumonia superinfection and severe coagulopathy which caused pneumorrhagia. 

After receiving the ECMO treatment, Tau was in intensive care for 7 days where she gradually recovered her health and was taken off a ventilator.

Tau has now been discharged from the hospital.