Mobile ECMO: The portable life support that helped save a mother
HOSPITAL MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. HOW ARE YOU FEELING NOW? I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER NOW. IT’S BEEN A LONG YEAR. IT REALLY HAS. DOCTORS WEREN’T SURE 45 YEAR OLD KRYSTAL DELONG WOULD EVEN BE HERE TO SHARE THIS STORY. WHAT STARTED AS A CASE OF THE FLU ENDED WITH THIS MOM IN A COMA FOR MONTHS. MY BOYFRIEND TOLD ME THAT I WAS UNRESPONSIVE. IN THE BED, AND THAT’S WHEN THE HOSPITAL WAS NOTIFIED. KRYSTAL ENDED UP IN LOWELL GENERAL HOSPITAL’S EMERGENCY ROOM, DIAGNOSED WITH STAPH PNEUMONIA. HER SISTER IN ILLINOIS AND HER SON IN TEXAS GOT THE CALL. NO FAMILY WANTS KRYSTAL’S LUNGS WERE FAILING. SHE DIDN’T GET THE HOSPITAL RIGHT THEN AND THERE. SHE WOULD HAVE DIED. DOCTORS AND LOWELL KNEW SHE WAS RUNNING OUT OF TIME. SHE NEEDE…
Mobile ECMO: The portable life support that helped save a mother
HOSPITAL MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. HOW ARE YOU FEELING NOW? I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER NOW. IT’S BEEN A LONG YEAR. IT REALLY HAS. DOCTORS WEREN’T SURE 45 YEAR OLD KRYSTAL DELONG WOULD EVEN BE HERE TO SHARE THIS STORY. WHAT STARTED AS A CASE OF THE FLU ENDED WITH THIS MOM IN A COMA FOR MONTHS. MY BOYFRIEND TOLD ME THAT I WAS UNRESPONSIVE. IN THE BED, AND THAT’S WHEN THE HOSPITAL WAS NOTIFIED. KRYSTAL ENDED UP IN LOWELL GENERAL HOSPITAL’S EMERGENCY ROOM, DIAGNOSED WITH STAPH PNEUMONIA. HER SISTER IN ILLINOIS AND HER SON IN TEXAS GOT THE CALL. NO FAMILY WANTS KRYSTAL’S LUNGS WERE FAILING. SHE DIDN’T GET THE HOSPITAL RIGHT THEN AND THERE. SHE WOULD HAVE DIED. DOCTORS AND LOWELL KNEW SHE WAS RUNNING OUT OF TIME. SHE NEEDED TO GET TO BOSTON. DOCTORS AT TUFTS MEDICAL CENTER WERE ABLE TO SEND CUTTING EDGE HELP. A LIFE SAVING DEVICE CALLED MOBILE ECMO. IT’S A PORTABLE LUNG BYPASS MACHINE THAT CAN BE BROUGHT STRAIGHT TO THE PATIENT. IT’S THE ONLY THING COULD SAVE HER. WOULD BE ECMO MACHINE. DOCTOR HARVARD BROUGHT THE DEVICE FROM TUFTS. TAKE A BLOOD FROM THE BODY TO A PUMP, AND THEN FROM A PUMP TO AN ARTIFICIAL LUNG THAT HELPS SUPPORT THE LUNGS. AND SOMETIMES EVEN THE HEART. THE MOBILE ECMO STABILIZED KRYSTAL ENOUGH SO SHE COULD BE AIRLIFTED TO BOSTON FOR ADVANCED CARE. YOU COULD SEE HOW. WHITISH HER LEFT LUNG LOOKS. DOCTORS SHOWED US WHAT KRYSTAL’S LUNGS LOOKED LIKE WHEN SHE FIRST ARRIVED. USUALLY ON A SIMPLE X-RAY, THE LUNGS SHOULD LOOK BLACK. NOT ONLY HER LUNGS WEREN’T WORKING, HER BLOOD PRESSURE WAS SO LOW, HER BODY WAS IN SHOCK STATE AND HER ORGANS WEREN’T WORKING WELL. AND, YOU KNOW, I THINK IF WE DIDN’T GET TO HER JUST AT THE RIGHT TIME, PROBABLY WOULD HAVE LOST KRYSTAL. IT WAS LIKE A ROLLER COASTER EVERY DAY IN THAT HOSPITAL. ONE DAY WOULD BE A LITTLE BIT OF GOOD NEWS. THE NEXT DAY. TERRIBLE NEWS. CRYSTAL’S FIGHT WAS FAR FROM OVER. SHE HAD SEVERAL COMPLICATIONS DURING HER TREATMENT, INCLUDING SEVERE BLEEDING INTO HER CHEST CAVITY. HER HEART STOPPED. WE HAVE TO GIVE HER ALMOST 30 BAGS OF BLOOD PRODUCTS TO GET HER, TO GET HER HEART GOING BACK THROUGH IT ALL, KRYSTAL’S FAMILY SAYS THEIR FAITH IS WHAT KEPT THEM HOPEFUL. WE PRAYED CONSTANTLY OVER MY SISTER AND WE JUST BELIEVED THAT GOD WAS GOING TO HEAL HER. AFTER TWO AND A HALF MONTHS IN THE ICU, KRYSTAL WOKE UP. I THINK THE FIRST THING SHE SAID WAS, MY VOICE IS WEIRD. I THINK THAT WAS THE FIRST TIME, LIKE, I KIND OF LIKE THOUGHT THAT LIKE, WOW, MY MOM’S GOING TO LIVE. LIKE SHE’S GOING TO MAKE IT THROUGH THIS. TODAY, KRYSTAL IS IN ILLINOIS WITH HER SISTER BREATHING ON HER OWN. THEY SAVED ME. YOU KNOW, BETWEEN GOD AND THAT HOSPITAL, THEY’RE THE REASON I’M STILL ALIVE. YEAH. KRYSTAL IS DOING A LOT BETTER. SHE STILL HAS TO SEE DOCTORS AND SPECIALISTS AND PHYSICAL THERAPISTS AS SHE CONTINUES TO RECOVER. DOCTOR, YOU SAW THERE HAS TAKEN CARE OF HUNDREDS OF PATIENTS USING ECMO. AND SAYS KRYSTAL IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE TOP FIV
Mobile ECMO: The portable life support that helped save a mother
Updated: 7:51 PM CDT Nov 1, 2025
What started as a case of the flu ended with a mom in a coma for months. “Oh my goodness. It’s been a long year. It really has,” Crystal Delong said. “My boyfriend told me that I was unresponsive in the bed, and that’s when the hospital was notified. I went there and I have absolutely no memory past being on the phone.” Crystal ended up in Lowell General Hospital’s emergency room, diagnosed with staph pneumonia. Her sister in Illinois and her son in Texas got the call no family wants: Crystal’s lungs were failing.“If she didn’t get to the hospital right then and there, miraculously she would’ve died,” said Crystal’s son, Trey Delong.Doctors in Lowell, Massachusetts, knew she was running out of time. She needed to get to Boston. Doctors at Tufts Medical Center were able to send cutting-edge help, a life-saving device called mobile ECMO. It’s a portable lung bypass machine that can be brought straight to the patient.“The only thing that could save her would be the ECMO machine,” said Dr. Haval Chweich, of Tufts Medical Center. “It’s basically a machine where we take blood from the body to a pump, and then from a pump to an artificial lung. Then that oxygenator adds oxygen, and it cleans the CO2 and back to the body usually through a vein or an artery, and that helps support the lungs and sometimes even the heart.” The mobile ECMO stabilized Crystal enough so she could be airlifted to Boston for advanced care.Crystal’s lungs were discolored when she first arrived.“You can see how whiteish her left lung looks. Usually, on an X-ray, the lung should look black. Not only were her lungs not working, her blood pressure was so low, her body was in shock state and her organs weren’t working well. I think if we didn’t get to her just at the right time, we probably would have lost Crystal,” Chweich said.“It was like a roller coaster every day in that hospital. One day it would be up, the next day it would be down one day. It’d be a little bit of good news, the next day, terrible news,” said Crystal’s sister, Shelby Childress.Crystal’s fight was far from over. She had several complications during her treatment, including severe bleeding into her chest cavity. Her heart even stopped.“We had to give her almost 30 bags of blood products to get her heart going back. Her heart stopped when she bled to that extent and were able to take her to surgery on the ECMO machine, take care of the bleeding, and recover her again from that major setback,” Chweich said. Through it all, Crystal’s family said their faith is what kept them hopeful. “We prayed constantly over my sister, and we just believed that God was going to heal her,” Childress said.After two and a half months in the intensive care unit, Crystal woke up.“I think the first thing she said was, ‘My voice is weird.’ I think that was the first time I kind of thought that, wow, my mom’s going to live. She’s going to make it through this,” said Trey Delong.Today, Crystal is in Illinois with her sister, breathing on her own“They saved me between God and that hospital. There’s a reason I’m still alive,“ said Crystal Delong.Delong still has to see doctors and physical therapists regularly as she continues to recover.Chweich has taken care of hundreds of patients using ECMO and says Crystal Delong is probably one of the top five saves they have ever had there at Tufts.
What started as a case of the flu ended with a mom in a coma for months.
“Oh my goodness. It’s been a long year. It really has,” Crystal Delong said. “My boyfriend told me that I was unresponsive in the bed, and that’s when the hospital was notified. I went there and I have absolutely no memory past being on the phone.”
Crystal ended up in Lowell General Hospital’s emergency room, diagnosed with staph pneumonia.
Her sister in Illinois and her son in Texas got the call no family wants: Crystal’s lungs were failing.
“If she didn’t get to the hospital right then and there, miraculously she would’ve died,” said Crystal’s son, Trey Delong.
Doctors in Lowell, Massachusetts, knew she was running out of time. She needed to get to Boston. Doctors at Tufts Medical Center were able to send cutting-edge help, a life-saving device called mobile ECMO. It’s a portable lung bypass machine that can be brought straight to the patient.
“The only thing that could save her would be the ECMO machine,” said Dr. Haval Chweich, of Tufts Medical Center. “It’s basically a machine where we take blood from the body to a pump, and then from a pump to an artificial lung. Then that oxygenator adds oxygen, and it cleans the CO2 and back to the body usually through a vein or an artery, and that helps support the lungs and sometimes even the heart.”
The mobile ECMO stabilized Crystal enough so she could be airlifted to Boston for advanced care.
Crystal’s lungs were discolored when she first arrived.
“You can see how whiteish her left lung looks. Usually, on an X-ray, the lung should look black. Not only were her lungs not working, her blood pressure was so low, her body was in shock state and her organs weren’t working well. I think if we didn’t get to her just at the right time, we probably would have lost Crystal,” Chweich said.
“It was like a roller coaster every day in that hospital. One day it would be up, the next day it would be down one day. It’d be a little bit of good news, the next day, terrible news,” said Crystal’s sister, Shelby Childress.
Crystal’s fight was far from over. She had several complications during her treatment, including severe bleeding into her chest cavity. Her heart even stopped.
“We had to give her almost 30 bags of blood products to get her heart going back. Her heart stopped when she bled to that extent and were able to take her to surgery on the ECMO machine, take care of the bleeding, and recover her again from that major setback,” Chweich said.
Through it all, Crystal’s family said their faith is what kept them hopeful.
“We prayed constantly over my sister, and we just believed that God was going to heal her,” Childress said.
After two and a half months in the intensive care unit, Crystal woke up.
“I think the first thing she said was, ‘My voice is weird.’ I think that was the first time I kind of thought that, wow, my mom’s going to live. She’s going to make it through this,” said Trey Delong.
Today, Crystal is in Illinois with her sister, breathing on her own
“They saved me between God and that hospital. There’s a reason I’m still alive,” said Crystal Delong.
Delong still has to see doctors and physical therapists regularly as she continues to recover.
Chweich has taken care of hundreds of patients using ECMO and says Crystal Delong is probably one of the top five saves they have ever had there at Tufts.