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Meet Nicholas Tedford Cabot, Arkansas
In 1990, Nick was born in Tulsa, Okla. He had trouble breathing immediately after birth and was placed on a ventilator in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of his local hospital. After four days in the NICU, Nick was diagnosed with Group B strep, persistent fetal syndrome and pneumonia, all potentially fatal illnesses. The treatment Nick so desperately needed was extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a heart-lung bypass technique. Nick’s parents, Dana and Ted, were informed that their newborn son would have to be transferred to another hospital to survive. They chose to send Nick to Arkansas Children's Hospital. He was transferred on a UH-1 Army Reserve helicopter from Tulsa to Little Rock and placed on mobile ECMO during the flight. Arkansas Children's Hospital is one of only two institutions in the United States to offer mobile ECMO. Once at ACH, Nick remained on ECMO for eight days. Once Nick was removed from ECMO, doctors clamped off the arteries and veins on the right side of his neck, due to Nick’s arteries being deteriorated. He continued his recovery for another three weeks. Dana and Ted were warned about possible mental and physical disabilities due to the interruption of blood flow to their son’s brain. “All of the doctors, nurses and staff members were always willing to explain everything to us in as much detail as possible, to help us feel more at ease with what was going on with our child,” says Dana. “They even introduced us to former ECMO patients, which helped us see that the possibility was real that Nick would survive this ordeal with little or no complications, which was exactly what happened.” Seventeen years after being on ECMO, Nick has grown into a man. He graduated high school in May and will start college at the University of Central Arkansas in the fall. Nick is an extremely active teenager – playing the French horn in both his high school and the UCA band, bowling with his Saturday morning league, performing ballet, tap and jazz at dance recitals, and preparing for a future as an engineer for NASA. 
Arkansas Children's Hospital, 1 Children’s Way, Little Rock, AR 72202-3591, (501) 364-1100 or TDD (501) 364-1184
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As the first child transported to Arkansas Children's Hospital on mobile ECMO, Nicholas began a process that would save many children’s lives.