For 12 days, the only thing keeping 3-year-old Madeline Lester alive was ECMO.

"Without ECMO, Maddie wouldn't be here right now. So ECMO's the only thing that's giving her a chance to recover, and to try again," said Cindy Lester, her mother.

ECMO stands for extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation. It's a rack of equipment that takes over the work her body can't do.

"Right now, it's providing not only oxygen to her body, but it's also removing carbon dioxide," said Dr. Rob Mazor, of ECMO Critical Care. "And it's also serving to pump the blood around her body. It's functioning as both her heart and lungs."

It's so crucial, a nurse is on standby 24-7, inspecting every piece, every hour. Maddie was born with only half a heart. The entire left side was missing. Her parents didn't know, until she started turning blue.

As a baby, Maddie had two successful open heart surgeries. But after the third operation, at age 3, she contracted a serious infection that weakened her heart. ECMO became, literally, a life-saver.

"ECMO, we always looked at it as really the last resort," David Lester said. "Life support, that means really you've died already. And now this machine, the battery in this machine is the only thing keeping you alive."

But it's not as grim as it sounds. ECMO is giving Maddie not only life support, but time for her own heart and lungs to recover.

For 12 days, ECMO did the work of her heart and lungs, allowing her own organs to recover. But Maddie had to stay sedated the entire time. What a difference a few weeks makes.

KING

Maddy Lester

When she finally came off ECMO, Maddy was once again a pistol. Mom and dad said she overcame an amazing array of complications: kidney dialysis, lung problems that caused her to bleed nearly to death, one infection after another. But she was on the road to recovery.

"Here she is! She's Maddie the Miraculous!" Cindy Lester said.