Advanced Life Support
- About Us
- Our Care
Life-Saving Heart and Lung Support for Children
The Nemours Children’s pediatric extracorporeal life support (ECLS) team provides advanced life-saving heart and lung support for critically ill children, from newborns to young adults. Our team is established, experienced and recognized for excellence.
Life support therapies, like ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), VAD (ventricular assist devices) and others do the work for the heart and/or lungs. We use life support for children with heart or respiratory failure, as a bridge to heart transplant, after surgery, or even in emergencies like during heart attack.
We offer expert ECLS service at Nemours Children’s Hospitals in Delaware and Florida. Our teams include renowned specialists and researchers in cardiothoracic surgery, critical care, neonatology, pulmonology and respiratory care, emergency medicine and more. We train providers from all over the world to use ECLS at their hospitals. Your child gets our very best, when it matters most.
In Delaware, we offer ground and air ECMO transport from area facilities. Our surgeons can prepare and stabilize children before transport to our hospital. We’re the only children’s hospital in the region with this advanced capability.
Expertise You Can Trust
Nemours offers award-winning life support services from specialists who are leaders in their field. Your child is in good hands here.
We’re awarded a Silver Pathways to Excellence by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) for demonstrated excellence in program organization and training.
We’re researching and looking for new and better ways to support children with heart and lung failure and safer blood thinner medication management during ECMO and VAD therapies.
Our surgeons are experts repairing and restoring the blood vessels used for ECMO when it’s no longer needed. This is critical for long-term health.
Our team provides education and training to providers nationwide. We host annual educational conferences to share the latest developments in ECMO research.
Expertise You Can Trust
Nemours offers award-winning life support services from specialists who are leaders in their field. Your child is in good hands here.
We’re recognized as a Gold ECLS Center of Excellence by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO). This means we offer a level of care you can’t find everywhere.
Our hospital has Delaware’s only newborn ECMO center. And healthy moms can also deliver their baby here to get immediate care after birth.
We’re the only children’s hospital in Delaware Valley/Greater Philadelphia to offer ECMO transport. This is important when minutes matter.
We’re involved in research and clinical trials to find new and better ways to use ECLS to help kids with critical heart conditions.
Meet the Team
Nemours advanced life support teams are experienced and focused on your child's healthiest future. Meet them now.
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Claude Anthony Beaty Jr., MD
Cardiothoracic Surgery Site Director, Temple Thoracic Residency Program, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson UniversityPrimary Office
Wilmington, DE -
Christopher D. Derby, MD
Cardiothoracic Surgery Surgical Director Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and Mechanical Circulatory SupportPrimary Office
Wilmington, DE
ECMO temporarily takes over for the heart, lungs or both by pumping blood and delivering oxygen throughout the body. Learn more from the experts at Nemours KidsHealth®.
What is a ventricular assist device? Find out what it is and how it’s used in treating heart failure in children.
The circulatory system carries oxygen, nutrients and hormones to cells in the body and removes waste products like carbon dioxide. Learn how it works.
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