A patient and his doctor have revealed an unusual way of treating severe instances of Covid, which entails putting them into a coma for up to 130 days. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a type of life support system used to help patients who are suffering from life-threatening diseases.

ECMO allows the heart and lungs to rest and repair by taking over their functions. It operates as an artificial lung, with blood being pumped out of the body into the machine, where carbon dioxide is extracted before the blood is returned to the patient via tubes.

Patients who require ECMO for breathing support normally spend 10-20 days in a coma, but that changed when Victorian physicians began utilizing it to treat severe Covid cases. During the virus’s two rounds across the state, 64 people with Covid were on the machine.

They stayed on assistance for an average of 41 days, with roughly 83 percent of them surviving. Associate Professor Vincent Pellegrino, the Alfred Hospital’s chief of ECMO, told 3AW on Friday that the rise in coma length was due to Covid’s “game-changing” and “onerous character

“Their lungs were in such a state (that) we were utilizing absolutely dangerous pressures in the lungs to obtain enough gas exchange to keep them alive,” he added. One of those patients was Steven Taleski, 33. He was in a coma for 84 days before waking up in January.

He awoke in a “daze,” unsure of where he was or what was going on around him.

“I figured it was approximately five days,” he continued, “but I was three or four months wrong and in a different year.”

“At first, it was quite difficult to accept.”

Mr. Taleski has been feeling better and more active every day since waking up.

Though his lung capacity is “still fairly limited,” he expects to return to work at some time.

Mr. Taleski added, “I’m kind of pleased I was pretty much sleeping for the entire incident since it sounds fairly disturbing.”

“It literally saved my life — what an incredible piece of technology.”