Novel COVID-19, Many Faces of a New Menace: Experience with a Male, 54 Years of Age, on the Ventilator, Treated by ECMO

A novel Corona virus disease (COVID-19) associated with a severe acute respiratory syndrome and originated from Wuhan city, in the Hubei province of China, in late 2019. Its spread was so rapid around the globe that consequently, in March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a COVID-19 pandemic. Although the lungs are the organs most affected because the portal of entry is via inhalation, this bug spares no organ of the body, including the nervous system, which is involved in the viremia manifesting as meningoencephalitisor intracerebral hemorrhage or even as a complication necessitating management with anticoagulants, and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). We describe our experience with a Saudi male, 54 years of age, who had been admitted to another hospital with COVID-19 positive pneumonia, septicemia, and severe respiratory failure. Initially, he required Non-Invasive Mechanical Ventilation (NIMV), and was later put on Invasive Mechanical Ventilation (IMV) because he had developed COVID-19-induced Adult Respiratory Syndrome (ARDS) and continued to show desaturating, despite being on high flow 100% FIO2. Therefore, being critically sick, he was started on veno-venous ECMO as rescue therapy, after the critical stage of the illness of the patient was discussed with his family.