By the time Vivek Gupta arrived at Swedish, his care team had just one shot at saving his life. After a massive heart attack at a company retreat, the Boston-based software engineer was clinging to life, as one organ after another started to fail.

When Dr. Mignone and Dr. Hernandez reviewed Vivek’s case, they knew his only chance was extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a therapy that could support his heart and lungs while they healed. The two doctors met him in the ambulance bay and immediately began his life-saving treatment, not leaving his side for the first 12 hours.

More than two months after arriving in our ED, Vivek was finally well enough to return to Boston and his family.

Swedish was one of only two hospitals in Washington state that could offer this cutting-edge technology, and Vivek would not be alive today without it.