JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The ECMO machine was used during the pandemic to help COVID patients recover when they could no longer breathe on their own.
ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and is similar to the heart-lung by-pass machine, which is used in open-heart surgery.
It pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, which allows the patient's heart and lungs to rest and recover.
Julia Weber is a success story simply by being alive right now. Less than 24 hours prior to First Coast News cameras meeting her in her hospital room, the 20-year-old Weber was receiving lifesaving treatment.
In the early hours of Sunday morning Weber suffered a severe asthma attack.
"I woke up and something was off, I remember my mom coming in and asking if I needed to go to the hospital, and I was afraid because I knew the answer internally," said Weber. "I tried to use the restroom and five steps to the restroom I was KO'd, and it was time to go to the hospital."
Weber has dealt with asthma her entire life, but that morning she had such a bad asthma attack that the level of carbon dioxide in her body was seven times the normal level.
"I've never seen a higher carbon dioxide level," said Dr. Dale Mueller, a thoracic surgeon at HCA Florida Memorial Hospital. "It became so high that our machines couldn't even measure it, she was minutes away from arresting and dying quite frankly."
Mueller said that Weber had status asthmaticus, which is when the asthma attack is so bad that a person can't breathe at all, and the patient can't be connected to a ventilator. Because of that, the carbon dioxide builds up inside the patient to become toxic. A high amount of carbon dioxide in the patient's blood stream can damage internal organs.
Weber was connected to an ECMO machine, which performed the act of breathing for Weber while she rested.
While the 20-year-old was attached to tubes and a machine she'd never seen before, her mother could only watch and pray.
"It was just me and my daughter and I just thought I may have just lost my child," said Casie Gaston, Weber's mother, "I knew my baby was possibly gone, I didn't know if she was dead or not."
Weber was connected to the ECMO machine for more than 48 hours before the carbon dioxide was pumped out of her body and her lungs regained the strength to breathe on her own.
"It was shocking waking up and realizing I missed three days and also realizing and knowing that I'm just 20 years old and have a whole life ahead of me," said Weber. "I haven't even completed school, it was scary to think it all could have been gone."
Because of the help of a lifesaving ECMO device and the care of the medical team at HCA Florida Memorial Julia Weber is still alive.
Next, she wants to become a respiratory therapist to help people just like her.