Jade Forlidas started at Vanderbilt as a nursing student in 1969; after a storied career, she has retired — but her daughter carries on as a LifeFlight nurse

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is home to the state’s largest adult Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program. And most recently, it became the only adult program in Tennessee with a mobile team that can initiate ECMO on patients transported to the Medical Center by its ambulances.

Eric Scelzi was a healthy 15-year-old boy who enjoyed soccer and competitive cycling. But in three days in 2011, he went from having a headache to fighting for his life.

For 25 years, patients at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, like 20-month-old Easton Cunningham, have been given a second chance at life when their lungs or heart, or sometimes both, have failed to perform.

Vanderbilt employee Drew Casey, 27, was at home when he began to experience shortness of breath. Thinking it might be a panic attack, his wife, Katie, called 911, and an ambulance took Casey to the Emergency Department, where he progressed very suddenly to circulatory failure and shock.

For the fourth time in a row, the Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) program at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been designated with the ELSO Award for Excellence in Life Support by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO).

For the third straight time, Vanderbilt’s heart and lung life-support program has received the ELSO Award for Excellence in Life Support by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO).