ECMO facility breathes new hope into critically ill patients at Paras Hospital

Srinagar, Feb 10: Paras Hospital Srinagar has boosted its critical care services by introducing a state-of-the-art life support facility - Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) - which functions as the heart and lungs of critically ill patients outside the body.

“This advanced cardiopulmonary life support system is aimed at providing treatment to patients whose hearts and lungs are extremely dysfunctional, Equipped with this latest technology, Paras Hospital Srinagar aims to make this critical care service accessible to patients in Kashmir,” Dr Irfan Rasool Bhat, Senior Consultant, Paras Health Srinagar.

Dr Irfan disclosed this during an interaction with the media here. He gave a brief description of the critical care facilities at the hospital.

“As witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a scarcity of ICU beds and ventilators in Kashmir both in the government and private sector. However, this scenario is gradually changing as few private hospitals are increasing their ICU capacity to serve the critically ill. The Paras Health Srinagar unit has more than 61 ICU beds equipped with advanced life-support systems like ventilators, NIV, bedside dialysis, and plasma exchange support.”

“We have also introduced ECMO technology, which earlier was only limited to Europe and US centres. It serves as heart and lung bypass support for patients with cardiac and respiratory failure who do not respond to conventional critical care. In J&K’s private healthcare sector, this is the first ECMO facility now available at Paras Srinagar.”

Further elaborating on Paras Hospital’s Critical care facilities, Dr Bathsheeba Andrabi, Senior Consultant said, “In fact, initiating critical care is the starting point for treating severely ill patients at our facility. We treat different types of critical patients including those with life-threatening infections, organ failure, poisoning, serious lung infections, polytrauma etc. If such patients are brought in during the early crucial hours, also called the ‘golden hour’ in medical terminology, there are very high chances of their complete recovery and survival. Our state-of-the-art ICU infrastructure coupled with round-the-clock expert care can make all the difference in handling medical emergencies.”

“We have one of the best nurse-to-patient ratios in critical care units enabling personalized care. With our experienced doctors and paramedical staff, we have successfully treated many patients who come in ICU conditions from all over Kashmir, preventing many probable deaths or complications.”

Dr Jatinder Arora, Zonal Director, Paras Health said “Paras Health Srinagar has a large team of trained intensive care specialists led by Dr Irfan Bhat and Dr Bathsheeba Andrabi. Our ICU units have 24x7 coverage by senior consultant-level doctors along with round-the-clock availability of other specialty experts. This superlative medical expertise and infrastructure is now allowing us to provide comprehensive critical care services in Srinagar itself, without patients having to travel out to cities like Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai for such treatment, unless necessary.”

“Our patients have access to synchronised multidisciplinary care across specialisations like cardiology, neurology, nephrology, gastroenterology, surgery etc. Expert guidance on co-morbid conditions is enabling customized and holistic care right here.”

“The concept of private health insurance coverage is still at a nascent stage in J&K with only 2-3% penetration. Paras Health Srinagar is proactively addressing this gap by getting empanelled with leading insurance providers and TPAs. We are already on board with 8 major national players including Bajaj Allianz, Care Health, SBI Gen Health, Go Digit, FHPL, Safeway, Good Health and Aditya Birla for cashless insurance facilities.”

“Through such collaboration, Paras aims to further the reach of its critical care facilities and medical expertise to those who need it the most. Our patient-centric approach supports the people of Kashmir and beyond,” Dr Arora said.