A Tee Off of a Different Kind

Center for Acute Respiratory Failure

Kevin Rogers was an otherwise healthy 25-year-old living in Staten Island when his life was turned upside down in May 2012. After a visit to the doctor for back discomfort, he was told it was likely musculoskeletal pain related to the physical nature of his work for a heating oil company. But when pain relievers failed to help, he and his mother, Evelyn, knew something else needed to be done.

Eventually the pain became very intense, and Mr. Rogers was diagnosed with pneumonia, which landed him in Richmond University Medical Center on Staten Island over Memorial Day weekend with a 104° fever. Despite intravenous antibiotics, his condition continued to decline, and that Tuesday he was admitted to the intensive care unit on a ventilator to help him breathe. His diagnosis: acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a life-threatening lung condition that prevents enough oxygen from getting to the lungs and into the bloodstream.

Calls from the hospital's doctors to other physicians around the country revealed no new approaches; they all agreed with the care being provided by the Richmond University doctors. And Mr. Rogers continued to worsen.

His mother kept a bedside vigil, aided by their large extended family, who visited him daily to offer words of support and encouragement. "We were told we had to prepare ourselves," Mrs. Rogers recalls. "So we started telling all our relatives to prepare to come in and see Kevin." She warned family members there would be no tears in her son's room. "In his room, it was all "Go Kevin go!" she says. "But in the hallway, that's where I would crumble."

The final call proved to be a lifesaver, when the ICU director called NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center to see if Mr. Rogers was a candidate for ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia doctors had been reporting success with the approach in some adults with ARDS, and Mr. Rogers was a candidate.

"I learned that ECMO was an 'out-of-body' way to oxygenate the body. Well, I was having an out-of-body experience myself, so I thought, 'Why not?'" says Mrs. Rogers. "When the ECMO transport team arrived, we were impressed by their confidence. It was like, 'Hooray, the Marines have landed!'" Family and hospital staff applauded as the team transferred Mr. Rogers out of the hospital, attached to ECMO, for the ride to the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia campus in uptown Manhattan the weekend after Memorial Day.

Because ECMO oxygenates the body without the use of a ventilator, Mr. Rogers' lungs began to heal on their own. He was on ECMO for 14 days, and continued to recover at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia until his discharge on July 30. He pushed himself through rehabilitation with one goal in mind: To be present at his family's annual golf outing in Ocean City, Maryland on August 3, and to be the first to tee off. He achieved his goal, and at dinner that night, his family serenaded him with the family cheer. He is continuing his rehabilitation twice a week at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.

"It was pretty amazing that out of everywhere in the world, I was lucky enough to live close to Columbia to get this care. It saved my life," says Mr. Rogers.

"If things didn't work out the way they did, this all would have turned out very differently," adds his mother. "When they say, 'Amazing things are happening here,' they're not kidding!"