A lifesaving medical technology puts some patients on a bridge to nowhere

Published: July 31, 2024, 9:39 a.m.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, can be a lifesaving technology for patients whose organs have failed. It works, essentially, by performing the functions that a healthy person\u2019s lungs and heart would normally do. While using the machine, many recipients of ECMO treatment can walk, talk, even ride a stationary bike, but they can\u2019t leave the hospital with the machine, nor can they survive without it. In a recent article in The New Yorker, emergency physician and writer Clayton Dalton described these patients as \u201ccaught on a bridge to nowhere.\u201d Marketplace\u2019s Lily Jamali spoke to Dalton about the complicated ethics of this technology.