ALREADY FUNCTIONING AT THE HOSPITAL IN BOLZANO THE LIFE-SAVING MACHINERY DONATED BY THE PODINI-FOUNDATION
16.04.2020 – From today the hospital in Bolzano can count on an additional life-saving machinery for ventilation to deal with the Covid emergency. A further step forward in defeating this invisible enemy.
The ECMO machine, which arrived in Bolzano in the past few days, was assembled at the clinical engineering of the city hospital and was delivered today to the intensive care unit. In the afternoon, the technical training of the doctors who will use it daily began.
The machine – donated to the hospital by the Podini Foundation, with an investment of over € 100,000 – is unique in the entire province in Bolzano and will allow to enhance the intensive care service, currently under pressure due to the emergency health. As explained by Dr. Kompatscher, Head of the COVID Intensive Care Department, the ECMO machine “is a system that acts as an artificial lung for the patient” and that gives him back his own blood but oxygenated. It is a vital support that thanks to the extracorporeal circulation it allows, in conditions of severe respiratory insufficiency, to put the heart and lungs at rest, by varying their ventilatory and pump functions. Produced by the company Xenios / Fresenius, it can be used both on adults and on children and babies.
The Head of the Emergency Service Marc Kaufmann was very pleased, attesting that in this period of serious emergency “public services together with private individuals have given a great hand to achieve today’s results”.
Furthermore, according to Kaufmann, the machine can be very useful not only in COVID patients but also later, to face all the other diseases that “can create a situation where the patient is in danger of life when of his lung function or heart is no longer guaranteed. “
The donation wanted to be a sign of solidarity, not only in words but also with deeds, aimed above all at those who daily fight in the front line against this virus” concluded Dr. Giovanni Podini, President of the Podini Foundation.
In the pictures:
Picture 1: doctor of Croce Rossa Association, Julia Kompatscher, Giovanni Podini and Marc Kaufmann
Picture 2: Giovanni Podini and Marc Kaufmann
Picture 3: the workshop
