Penn Heart and Lung Rescue
Immediate access to specialized emergency care
Penn Medicine’s Heart and Lung Rescue programs provide highly skilled, lifesaving care to anyone, at any hospital, in need of advanced life-saving care. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we safely transfer those with life-threatening heart and lung conditions from their local hospital to our medical center in Philadelphia.
For people who are too sick to travel, we’re the only center in the region that can come to them and initiate extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) before safely transferring them for care at Penn.
Our rescue programs provide:
- Access anywhere, anytime, wherever someone is in need
- Transfer via ground or air through our PennSTAR program
- Evaluation and care from top heart and lung specialists who have experience treating complex conditions that may need expedited interventions
- A complete treatment plan, which may include critical care services, cardiac catheterization, surgery, and other therapies
- Hybrid approaches that include ECMO and catheter-based treatments for those who need them
Lifesaving heart and lung rescue
Penn Medicine has unique expertise in providing care for life-threatening heart and lung failure. We use leading techniques and technology to bridge the gap between critical illness to recovery or transplant.
Penn Heart Rescue has treated thousands of people with severe heart conditions, including those who have had serious heart attacks, cardiac arrest, cardiogenic shock, acute pulmonary embolism, and aortic conditions. Our rapid referral program allows our specialists to provide prompt evaluations and expedite advanced therapies for the best possible outcomes. Evaluation and care are provided by specialists with a variety of expertise, including cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons, pulmonary medicine specialists, cardiac and pulmonary imaging specialists, and others.
Penn Lung Rescue provides advanced therapies to people with severe but reversible respiratory failure. Because these patients are often too sick to be transported, our program is designed to be mobile, allowing our specialists to travel to them and begin treatment with ECMO. Once they’re stable, we transport them to our center. This gives our specialists time to address the cause of respiratory failure and create a treatment strategy.
ECMO as a bridge to a lung transplant is a keystone therapy at Penn. We’re also a leading transplant center for people who need ECMO support for COVID-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and for those with pulmonary embolism.
Our Lung Rescue team was there when Brianna needed it most
When Brianna was admitted to her local hospital with severe respiratory failure, her husband reached out to Penn Medicine to help save her life. The Penn Lung Rescue team transferred her to our center and provided the complex emergency care she needed until she could receive a lung transplant, giving her more time with her family.
Related articles
$25M trial uses phones to gamify steps, fight heart disease
Penn Medicine researchers have been awarded $25M to conduct a trial using smartphones to fight heart disease.
Study identifies new prognostic biomarker for heart failure
Bloodstream levels of a protein fragment called endotrophin can be used to predict outcomes in patients with a common form of heart failure.
Patient stories
ECMO saves recovering cancer survivor from lung failure
From cancer survivor to lung failure, Joey Porch’s journey took a miraculous turn with the help of the Penn Lung Rescue team
Home ventilation for respiratory failure: Jacquie’s story
Jacquie Eubanks never suspected respiratory failure could be causing her shortness of breath. Home breathing treatment helps her live a fulfilling life.