Dr Malaika Mendonca graduated from the Essen Medical School University (Germany) in 1996. Her involvement in Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) started during her residency training for anaesthesia and critical care in Essen. She further acquired international experience through electives and observerships in the Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto, Canada, and the Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, USA.
After completing her Board Certification (Facharzt) in 2001, she joined the Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital in Munich to lead the Cardiac Paediatric Critical Care Unit, with major exposure to ECMO, ventricular assist devices and heart transplants.
Always interested in new perspectives and challenges, she moved in 2004 to the United Arab Emirates to support the creation of the Paediatric Critical Care Unit in Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi, bringing it up to 27 beds. She led the Cardiac PICU from 2010 as Division Chief, and, as ECMO Program Director, established and developed the SKMC Program until it became the reference centre in the UAE and a leading centre in the Gulf region.
Her dedication to education, teaching and knowledge exchange has made her a frequently invited speaker in local and international conferences,
She served as Chairman of the South and West Asia Chapter of ELSO (SWAC ELSO) from 2016 to 2018. She was also a member of the ELSO Executive Committee in 2017.
Upon completion of her Chairmanship term in 2018, she returned to Europe and joined the PICU of the Inselspital University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, where she directs the Paediatric ECMO Program in addition to her clinical duties. She is actively involved in Euro ELSO as a steering committee member and through teaching, simulations and presentations, and also leads local training and education. She keeps publishing on ECMO topics and participated in chapters writing for books.
