A rare case of life-threatening swimming pool pneumonia in an adult: the use of extracorporeal technique (ECMO).

A 19-year-old male presented with a history of cough, shortness of breath, and fever, which started 6 hours after indoor swinging. His chest X-ray showed lung haziness and left-sided pleural effusion. A computed tomographic scan of the chest revealed bilateral lung infiltrates suggestive of pneumonia and left-sided pleural effusion. After the insertion of a 32 Fr chest drain, 900 mL of straw-coloured fluid was drained. The patient's condition deteriorated. He became hypoxic and haemodynamically unstable. Arterial blood gas analysis showed hypercapnia and respiratory acidosis. The patient had to be intubated and mechanically ventilated, but there was no improvement. We decided to proceed with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The patient was eventually weaned off after 8 days and made a complete recovery.