Jenna Gresko, a registered nurse in the surgical ICU at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City never expected to need to emergency care after giving birth to her first son, writes Matteo Iadonisi for 6ABC.

But within 15 minutes after delivering her son, James, at Jefferson Abington Hospital, which is closer to her home, she started having trouble breathing.

“I was a healthy 29-year-old, so it was expected to just have the baby and you know, go home,” Gresko said.

It turned out she had developed an amniotic fluid embolism which can lead to heart and lung failure. She needed immediate medical attention and lucky for Gresko, the ECMO team had just finished training for emergency situations like hers.

“At that time, we were just finishing our simulation for Code Blue ECMO, which is new to this hospital,” said Dr. Nawar Al-Rawas, the Medical Director for ECMO services at Jefferson Abington Hospital.

Gresko’s condition got progressively worse quickly so she couldn’t be moved to the cardiac surgery unit so the ECMO could be moved in. The whole team and all the equipment needed to be moved upstairs quickly.

Gresko, looking back, said if they weren’t able to mobilize so quickly, she may not be here right now.

Read more about how the ECMO team saved her life at 6 ABC.