Last April, Santa Maria resident Louis Meza was tasked with a harrowing decision: Whether or not to have his wife, Melissa Meza, transferred to an LA County hospital to treat her worsening complications from COVID-19.
The treatment, being placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, was Melissa’s “last hope,” Louis told the Sun nearly a year after he and Melissa first came down with the virus. But the risk, doctors told Louis at the time, was that she might not survive the hospital transfer. Melissa had been on a ventilator for more than two weeks at that point.
Louis decided to have Melissa transferred, and he’s grateful he did. She survived the ride and was breathing on her own within days of being on the ECMO machine. The life-support machine temporarily takes over the job of blood oxygenation, giving the lungs time to heal from the damage that severe COVID-19 can cause.
Louis said he’s thankful every day for the machine that saved Melissa’s life, but having to make the terrifying life-or-death decision to transfer her is something he doesn’t wish on anyone. That’s why the Mezas were overjoyed to hear that Marian Regional Medical Center now has an ECMO machine of its own, thanks to generous support from the Mark and Dorothy Smith Family Foundation.
“Now they’re saving people here,” Louis said. “They don’t have to travel all that distance and take that chance of not making it.”
Marian Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Paul Perry told the Sun that, while the machine is by no means an infallible cure for COVID-19, having one on the Central Coast is “a tool we can use to help us support patients and give them a higher likelihood of having a successful outcome.”
Marian is the only hospital between LA and the Bay Area with the machine.
“It allows us to stabilize patients here, in order to more safely transport them to a larger center,” Perry said. “The other opportunity it gives us is the ability to completely support the patient through the entirety of their disease process without having to necessarily transfer them for that therapy.”
The machine can treat one patient at a time, and Marian is already using it.
“The Central Coast’s first patient went on ECMO last week, and is so far doing very well with the therapy,” Perry said.
The Mark and Dorothy Smith Family Foundation’s significant donation, made in honor of Louis and Melissa Meza, is what made the ECMO acquisition a possibility, according to the hospital.
“In addition to the ECMO medical technology, the Mark and Dorothy Smith Family Foundation partnered with Marian Regional Medical Center throughout the pandemic to support vital community services, patients, and medical professionals,” hospital officials added in a statement.
While not everyone with severe lung damage will benefit from ECMO, Perry said that certain factors can help doctors to determine if someone is a good candidate.
“Patients that have extreme lung injury, but their other organ systems would seem to be intact, such as neurologic, heart, digestive,” he said, typically do well on the ECMO machine.
Luckily, it did wonders for Melissa Meza when she received the treatment last year.
“I tell her every day, I’m so thankful to have her by my side,” Louis said. “[ECMO] has changed our lives, it really has.”
Melissa said that after everything she went through, when she heard an ECMO machine was coming to the Central Coast, “the feeling was amazing.”
“When I think of this machine, I honestly think of just the true genius behind it. I think of life, and my family. I can’t even explain or put into words,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for that machine.”
But Melissa was also candid about the challenges she continues to face in her recovery, nearly one year after being first infected with COVID-19.
“It’s a struggle,” Melissa said. “I get winded just talking, or if I laugh too much I start getting coughing spells. I get a lot of crackling in my lungs that causes me to cough. I wish I understood and knew why it’s affecting everybody so differently.”
While the arduous recovery process is at times frustrating, Melissa said, “I’ve just got to constantly be reminded of how blessed I am to be here.”
She hopes that if people take one thing away from hearing her story, it’s the importance of staying vigilant and following public health precautions.
“It is here, and it is real,” Melissa said. “I just think people still need to be mindful of the fact that it’s a deadly virus.”
Highlight
• The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office announced that it will celebrate March’s National Reading Month virtually this year. “In years past, sheriff’s staff were invited into classrooms across Santa Barbara County where they would share a children’s story as well as stories about their role here at the Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff’s Office officials said in a statement. “This year, Sheriff Brown, along with several other staff members, have pre-recorded book readings that share important messages.” The readings can be found on the Sheriff’s Office’s YouTube channel.
Staff Writer Malea Martin wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send news tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 11-18, 2021.