Thursday January 18, 2024
Special Father-Son moment thanks to life-saving ECMO
Almost a year ago, Paul Kempton’s life was saved by the Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Service at Eastern Health Box Hill.
Mr Kempton is back playing squash and has recently gone on to see his son, Mark, graduate from the Police Academy.
The Kemptons recently reappeared on Channel 7 News to celebrate the occasion.
“It would have been so bittersweet because Mark had found out he had been accepted into the police when [Paul] was in a coma,” Ms Kempton told 7 News.
In a serendipitous chain of events, ECMO, the emergency heart-lung bypass machine administered by the Eastern Health Box Hill ICU team, was kindly donated by the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation in 2019 and continues to change lives.
At the time, the new police recruit had been told to make his way to Eastern Health Box Hill as it might be the last time he would get to be with his father.
“It’s like a big moment for my life. And I get to share it with dad, which is a really nice thing,” Mark Kempton said.
Ms Kempton also reached out to express her gratitude to the team at Eastern Health.
“To see Paul, look at his son with such pride at his graduation was unforgettable. To the beautiful humans that brought Paul back from the brink, Dr Niall Kennedy, Dr John Dyett, Cheelim Liew, and the incredible Emergency Department staff…I hope that you always know how grateful we are.”
