Ho, ho, ho! Gather around, my dear friends, for I have a tale to tell, not of elves and reindeer, but of the incredible journey of those facing the stormy blizzards of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and their voyage towards the warm hearth of lung transplantation (LTx). In the magical land of medicine, where stethoscopes jingle and hearts beat in hope, there exists a special sleigh ride, powered not by reindeer, but by the extraordinary technology known as ECMO, guiding patients through their LTx with the care and precision of my very own sleigh navigation.

In the years twinkling between 2018 and 2023, a workshop of skilled surgeons performed 219 LTx, with 56 of these sleigh rides bolstered by the magic of ECMO. Among these, 34 brave souls facing the frosty challenges of PH were whisked away on their journey, their conditions classified into groups as varied as the toys in my workshop: 19 in WHO group 1, 14 in group 3, and a solitary patient in group 4, each receiving the veno-arterial type of ECMO as their guiding star.

Now, you might wonder, did this magical support make their journey smoother? Did it ensure they reached the festive morning of recovery? Indeed, my friends, the early (30-day) and long-term (1-year) survival rates of these patients, both with and without the frostbite of PH, were as closely matched as two snowflakes in a blizzard: 91.2% vs. 77.3% in the early days, and 53.0% vs. 41.3% over the longer trek, with their stays in the cozy inn of the hospital nearly identical, a median of 31 days for those with PH and 28 days for those without.

So, as we sip our hot cocoa and bask in the glow of the fireplace, let us marvel at the journey of these patients, for whom the ECMO sleigh and LTx combined to offer a path through the snowstorm of PH. Despite the challenges, their survival and hospital stays were as comparable as the joy in children’s hearts on Christmas morning. A true testament to the spirit of resilience and the miracles of modern medicine, ho, ho, ho!