A life-saving machine developed in the 70s is finding renewed purpose post-pandemic Stephen Howie October 28, 2025 / 6:03 am

Kelli Gehrke, 36, had been in cardiac arrest for seven minutes when a mobile team of doctors and specialists flown in from Harborview Medical Center connected her to a life-saving machine that bypassed her failing heart and lungs.

Three days earlier, Kelli Gehrke had traveled with her husband Chris Gehrke from their home in Lacey, Washington, to Madigan Army Medical Center in Fort Lewis for the birth of their third child.

But things had not gone according to plan. After an emergency C-section, Kelli Gehrke suffered a rare amniotic fluid embolism, causing amniotic fluid from the womb to enter her bloodstream.

During the birth and the complications that foll

See Full Page