Thumbs Up for UCLA Health

“My mom came out of the elevator and heard ‘he’s code blue, he’s code blue,’ and she walked to my room where I had flat-lined,” says Matt Pohlson, who came to the hospital thinking he might have appendicitis. “I went to UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica and they could tell there was a blockage in my intestines. So they did the gut surgery and it went well, but it created some kind of stress that created a heart failure. They got a pulse and I remember coming out and seeing my dad. I gave him a thumbs up and heard them saying we need to use this ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine. My understanding is that the ECMO is a machine that enables your heart to function while your normal heart is not. I woke up four days later, and now I’m here, at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and I’m totally healthy. Everyone here is amazing and I love my team. I could not be more grateful.”