ECMO Support Cost in Chennai, India

The cost of ECMO support in Chennai typically ranges from $510 to $4,900 USD (about ₹48,400 to ₹4.65 lakh), depending on the hospital, room category and type of procedure.

A typical estimate for ECMO support in Chennai is around $1,650 (about ₹1.57 lakh). What you pay depends mainly on your own case. If support is needed for only a short time, your bill is likely to be closer to $510 (about ₹48,400). It is likely to be nearer $4,900 (about ₹4.65 lakh) if support lasts many days, or complications or extra procedures are needed.

When comparing Chennai packages for ECMO support, check whether each quote includes:

• Daily intensive care and ECMO team charges
• Circuit and consumables
• Blood products and tests
• Specialist fees

ECMO, short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, takes over the work of failing lungs, or of the heart and lungs together, by drawing blood out through tubing, passing it through an oxygenator and pumping it back.

Situations named by the American Lung Association include serious lung failure from ARDS, pneumonia or a clot in the lung, heart failure or cardiac arrest, complications after heart surgery or a transplant, and bridging a patient to a transplant.

It stresses that ECMO does not treat the illness itself but gives time for the organs to recover or for another treatment to be arranged.

Blood thinners stop the circuit clotting, which makes bleeding a major risk, and the American Lung Association also sets out clots, stroke, infection and equipment faults.

Support might be needed for anything from a few days to a number of weeks.

Fitness to fly: there is no aviation figure specific to this procedure, so fly after the surgeon has reviewed you and ask how to reduce clot risk on a long journey.

In Chennai, the price of ECMO support is generally built from these parts:

• Daily ICU and ECMO staffing: intensivists, perfusionists and nurses.
• Investigations and blood products: regular tests and transfusions.
• Advance payment: a deposit is often asked for on admission.
• ECMO mode: veno-venous or veno-arterial.
• Days on support: charged per day.
• Circuit and ICU care: disposables and one-to-one nursing.
• Underlying illness: and any other treatment.

ECMO is charged chiefly by the day, so the total can rise far above the range shown if support lasts for weeks; ask a Chennai ICU about daily charges and deposits.

ECMO is available only in intensive care units with a trained ECMO and perfusion team, which in Chennai means the bigger tertiary hospitals.

Hospitals in Chennai can hold NABH accreditation, India's national quality standard set by a board of the Quality Council of India and itself accredited by ISQua, and the NABH website shows whether an accreditation is still valid.

Joint Commission International (JCI) accredits a number of Indian hospitals, and its public directory lets you check whether a Chennai hospital on your shortlist is currently included.

Private hospitals and clinics in Tamil Nadu have to register under the state's Clinical Establishments (Regulation) Act of 1997, with rules issued in 2018, so you can ask a Chennai provider to show its registration.