Heart attack victim gets rare procedure in effort to save his life

Sudbury’s hospital is celebrating the success of an extraordinary operation that helped keep a city man alive.

Mike Pressacco survived a heart attack, but the complications that came after put him under threat of losing his life again.

Pressacco’s condition was so severe that he underwent a rare procedure that is only done in a few health care centres in Ontario.

Sudbury’s Mike Presacco nearly died of a heart attack earlier this month. On Oct. 24, he spoke with the media about his miraculous ordeal and how he survived. (Jason Turnbull/CBC)

Sudbury ICU doctor Bhanu Nalla says the procedure is called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO.

That’s where the blood is removed from the body through a tube, oxygenated by a special machine, and then returned to the body through a second tube placed near the heart.

“Although we fixed the heart attack, we hadn’t fixed the bleeding problem that [came] after,” Nalla told CBC News.

“And that’s really what ICU were doing that night. And that needed a huge amount of resources. Trying to resuscitate him by giving him blood products and trying to stop his bleeding issue all night.”

Pressacco needed ECMO because his weakened heart could not supply his lungs with the oxygen-rich blood required for normal lung function.

Hospital officials say more than 100 people played a role in saving Pressacco’s life and looking after him while he was in hospital.

Pressacco spent two weeks in hospital, and is on the road to a full recovery.

Listen to the full interview on CBC northern Ontario radio show Up North.

Heart attack survivor Mike Pressacco hugs his doctor Bhanu Nalla, as nurse Bonnie Burton looks on. (Jason Turnbull/CBC)