Bhubaneswar, July 15 -- Critical Covid-19 patients may no longer have to be referred to other states for the life-saving Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) treatment as one such machine has been set up at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar on Thursday.

AIIMS Director B Gitanjali inaugurated the life saving machine on the occasion of the ninth foundation day of the institute in the presence of all doctors and medical staff of ECMO department.

"There are certain patients for whom ECMO treatment is essential. It's mostly a medical diagnosis. If there is no improvement by putting a Covid patient on ventilator, the patient is given the support of ECMO to give the lungs rest. I hope the machine will be e...