An interview with the medical director of DHR’s highly-rated ECMO program

EDINBURG, Texas – DHR Health has celebrated the one-year anniversary of its highly-rated extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program.

After 20 years away, Dr. Andrew Phillips, a Rio Grande Valley native, came back to the region to run the program.

Phillips went to Sharyland High School. From there he went to Rice University. He studied to be a doctor at the University of Chicago Medical School and then completed his residency and fellowship at Stanford University. He later joined the faculty in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before returning to the Valley. 

In a video interview with the Rio Grande Guardian, Phillips said ECMO is the most advanced life support system in the world. He said it is used for critically ill patients with cardiac or respiratory failure. 

The system works by temporarily replacing the function of the heart and lungs, oxygenating the patient’s blood outside the body, then returning it back to the patient’s body, Phillips explained. This process provides support to the patient’s organs while allowing time for recovery or while awaiting further treatment.

“Patients in the Rio Grande Valley now have the same access to the most advanced life support interventions as patients in other metropolitan areas—as they should,” Phillips said. “The equipment and techniques used at DHR Health are the same as these highly regarded institutions.”

When a patient undergoes ECMO placement, a multidisciplinary team of specialized medical experts, including intensivists, pulmonologists, cardiologists, perfusionists, nurses and others, work together to help stabilize the patient, Phillips said. 

Following cannulation, whether through the neck, chest or groin, the patient receives ongoing support from a highly trained medical team, including additional staff at bedside 24 hours a day, who are specifically trained in ECMO management.

Here is the video interview with Dr. Phillips:

DHR Health Level 1 Trauma Director Dr. Jeffrey Skubic said the ECMO program also plays an important role in DHR Health’s designation as a Level I Trauma Center. 

“ECMO is very necessary to a Level 1 Trauma Center because you can’t really say you’re doing everything possible for patients without the support of ECMO,” Skubic said. “It is rare that you need it, but when you do, the patient will die without it.”

DHR Health also assists other hospitals in the region to transfer patients for ECMO, including bringing the ECMO team to facilities to start ECMO there if the patient is too unstable to travel without it. 

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