A state-of-the-art treatment has provided lifesaving support to 20 patients with respiratory failure in the country, according to Dr Ibrahim Fawzy Hassan, the head of the programme at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
Dr Fawzy, one of a cadre of Qatari doctors in clinical leadership roles at HMC, was tasked with steering the development of HMC’s Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Programme, to provide support for patients suffering from severe respiratory problems.
ECMO works by oxygenating blood, using an artificial lung outside of the body. It stabilises a patient’s severely diseased or damaged lungs and provides them with respiratory support. ECMO also supports the process of healing from infection by maintaining the supply of oxygen to the body while resting the lungs.
“It is a national programme to support patients with severe respiratory failure, which was created in light of emerging viruses such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus and H1N1 influenza,” Dr Fawzy said.
“We started the ECMO service in Hamad General Hospital’s Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) as a hub-and-spoke model. We were then able to transport very sick patients there from different hospitals within HMC through our outstanding critical care transport programme,” said Dr Fawzy, who currently serves as director of HMC’s MICU and its Corporate Critical Care Centre, as well as deputy medical director of the Ambulance Service.
Specialised training and co-operation by a multidisciplinary team is required to perform ECMO, a complicated and risky procedure that requires removing blood directly from a large vein close to the heart, oxygenating it outside of the body and returning it directly to the heart. HMC provided Dr Fawzy and his team with a unique opportunity to train with the UK-based Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, which has one of the world’s most successful ECMO programmes.
Within a year, Dr Fawzy’s multidisciplinary team was successfully conducting lifesaving surgery, and HMC’s ECMO programme, the first of its kind in the region, was described by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation, an international organisation that monitors extracorporeal services across the globe, as “the fastest and the most comprehensive programme that has been built in the Middle East and around the world.”
Dr Fawzy has recently won the US-based Cleveland Clinic’s Young Clinician of the Year Award for the Middle Eas. Dr Fawzy is also responsible for helping to shape the future of Qatar’s critical care services, developing HMC’s aeromedical programme, and participating in many other projects to improve patient care.