Originally Posted by
randomlegend
Here's a little tidbit that's popped into my head on the basis of talking about heroic efforts to save kids.
The last bastion of heroic treatment you can give someone who is really trying to die is ECMO (that's a bit of an oversimplification obviously but the underlying point is sound).
There is one man in the whole of the UK who can provide an ECMO transport service for neonates. He is affectionately known as ECMO-man in NICUs across the country.
He is not a neonatologist, he is not even a paediatrician, he knows basically nothing about neonatal intensive care. He is an adult vascular surgeon who thought it would be cool to be ECMO-man. In essence, he is the country's most glorified plumber who can plumb a premature baby into an ECMO machine and transport them to a hospital which is neonatal ECMO centre. I think by helicopter but can't 100% remember on that.
So if your baby is in a NICU which is not an ECMO centre and they decide it is sick enough to need ECMO, you will likely meet ECMO man. If ECMO man is on holiday you are shit out of luck.
There are little oddities and lotteries like this all through the NHS which I imagine the public suspect or are aware of to some extent but don't know the specifics.
Anyway I thought that might be interesting.