JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Feb. 18, 2014) -- Brooke Army Medical Center's first patient treated with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, also known as ECMO, at San Antonio Military Medical Center celebrated her second birthday this year.
Two years ago on Jan. 13, 2012, Brianna Sackreiter, whose father is an active duty Soldier, was born in Honduras with a major abdominal wall defect. She underwent surgical repairs, but developed intestinal complications and a severe bloodstream infection. During a transfer from Honduras to Seattle Children's Hospital, she developed further complications that caused her flight to divert to SAMMC.
Due to the severity of her illness, doctors at BAMC determined ECMO would be the only lifesaving course. ECMO is a heart-lung bypass system that replaces the natural functions of the heart and lungs, allowing an infant or child to rest while treatments and natural healing of the affected organs take place.
"It was decided that she would surely die without ECMO," Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Michael Shoemaker, a SAMMC neonatologist, said at the time.
Brianna was placed on ECMO on Feb. 11 and was taken off the machine on Feb. 18. This allowed her to survive long enough to receive additional corrective abdominal surgeries at SAMMC. On March 21, her health improved and was transferred to Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., where her father is stationed, for further treatment.
Now, after two years, Brianna continues to grow healthy and strives to learn and explore new things in her life.
"Despite the situation Brianna went through couple of years ago, it's hard to believe she was born with a defect," said Anthony, Brianna's dad, on a recent email message. "She is vibrant and doing well, due to the remarkable work done at BAMC."
Brianna's favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs, "but also loves all types of vegetables and she enjoys coloring, and painting everything she can get her hands on," he added.
"Without the help of BAMC and the doctors, I know we wouldn't have Brianna with us today," he said. "We (Anthony and Yasmin) would really like to thank all of our doctors and nurses for all the time, effort and amazing care. Thank you for saving our little angel."
The ECMO program is a multi-disciplinary team of cardiac intensive care unit physicians, nurses, specially trained respiratory therapists and medical technicians who provide customized ECMO care for each patient they treat. The program also supports Graduate Medical Education in surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics and neonatology.
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