>able to walk and read the newspaper. Reading the newspaper is a 'maybe' here, but the notion of patients just generally walking around while on ECMO treatment

>able to walk and read the newspaper. Reading the newspaper is a 'maybe' here, but the notion of patients just generally walking around while on ECMO treatment as we know it today is absurd. Letting a patient be ambulatory during ECMO treatment is still in the realm of very, very, very small-n clinical trials, and the risk of near-immediate death from things like a cannula dislodging are very high. Even if it was safe, you're looking at a massive cart of equipment and 1-2 dedicated personnel to walk around with the patient while tweaking its settings. In general, nobody being treated by ECMO is 'reading the newspaper', if they're cogent and conscious at all. It has absolutely brutal effects on the body, and people are kept sedated while receieving the treatment for good reason.