Due to advances in critical care medicine over the past several decades, the number of survivors of critical illness continues to grow despite increased severity of illness (¹). There is also growing recognition that these survivors encounter a wide variety of challenges in their recovery. Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) is defined as new cognitive, physical, or mental health impairments that persist beyond hospitalization in survivors of critical illness. The impacts of PICS-related impairments are far reaching and include inability to return to work, social isolation, financial difficulties, and emotional distress (^2,3). As the number of ICU recovery clinics grows, there is promise that regularly evaluating for and treating PICS can improve patient-centered outcomes, although more research is needed in this area (⁴). For many patients, an ICU discharge is just the beginning of a road to recovery that is often long and laden with many obstacles along the way.

Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is a form of mechanical life support that can be used to rescue patients who present with cardiogenic shock of varying etiologies. VA-ECMO can also serve as bridge to recovery, transplant, or destination therapy such as a left ventricular assist device (⁵). The use of VA-ECMO and the number of centers providing it has grown exponentially since 1990 (⁶). Historically, patients requiring VA-ECMO for cardiogenic shock have an in-hospital mortality approaching 60%, as well as significant rates of ECMO-related adverse events including renal failure, bleeding, vascular complications, and limb ischemia (^5–7). The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) registry provides a wealth of data on survival and physical outcomes (⁶). However, the burden of PICS and long-term patient-centered outcomes in the VA-ECMO survivors has not been well characterized. While survival is undeniably important, most patients and families have expectations beyond discharge from the hospital