External blood oxygenation saved hundreds of Covid-19 sufferers – study

Adding oxygen to blood using ECMO process found to cause big increase in survival rate in severe UK cases

Scores of severely ill Covid-19 sufferers survived because they were given the NHS's highest form of intensive care in which an artificial lung breathes for them, a study has found.

Patients in the UK who underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) were more likely to survive than those who did not have the treatment, according to the research.