New CPR technology at the University of Iowa saves Muscatine man's life

For the last year, Ken Platt has taken many walks. But the road to recovery was a walk that started back in March.

"I woke up in the middle of the night and I had this feeling of, 'Uh oh I don't feel good, and I think I might be in trouble,'" he said.

Platt was having his second heart attack, leading him to be taken from his Muscatine home to the University of Iowa Health Care in Iowa City. His wife, Kaitlynn, stayed by his side along the way.

"I almost collapsed, my legs were like Jello, I could not walk," she said. "I was about to lose my person. And he was fine not even four hours ago."

Doctors told her Ken's heart had stopped twice and there were few options — except for one Hail Mary procedure.

"I said, 'Try whatever you can,'" Kaitlynn said.

That procedure is called eCPR, used on patients when regular CPR or defibrillators won't work. It uses extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to remove blood and add oxygen to it, helping patients like Ken breathe better as their heart repairs itself.

Lovkesh Arora is the ECMO medical director at the University of Iowa and worked on Ken's case.

"(The) ECMO machine can take care of the patient and work like an artificial heart and lung for a certain number of days until (the) heart recovers and can provide good enough support for the rest of the other organs to work," Arora said.

Within a week, Ken was able to be taken off ECMO, making him the first patient to successfully be saved with the program. But that didn't mean there wouldn't be some bumps in the road.

Ken ended up having a blood infection, pneumonia and a collapsed lung during his recovery. Despite these challenges, he now walks around more thankful than ever.

"It's amazing how much you need your legs to bend down and pick something up out of a hole or something," Platt said.

The eCPR program was launched in November 2023 at UI Health Care in Iowa City.