Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used for cardiogenic shock rescue. It is hard to predict the outcome from this treatment by clinical observation in days soon after installation. We analyzed the plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-10, reactive oxygen species, and 8-OHdG, and the glutathione peroxidase activities from 23 cases at the time of ECMO installation before resuscitation. Generalized additive models (GAM) were performed to identify the death ranges of every variable, and the variables were further discretized. The impaired release of IL-10 on shock led to death. IL-10 levels at >16.58 pg/ml differentiated death from survival for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients, and levels at >143.17 pg/ml did the same for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) patients. The prediction power of discretized IL-10 alone was measured as area under the curve (AUC) 0.913. The generalized linear model was then performed to predict the best composition from both the original and discretized variables and resulted in AUC 0.97 for the combined discretized IL-10 and superoxide ions. Two missed myocarditis cases from IL-10 prediction were resolved by superoxide ion levels. Our observations lead to the hypothesis that a proper response to cardiogenic shock by releasing the appropriate amount of IL-10 is required for survival in the cases of AMI and DCMP. For myocarditis, proper responses in IL-10 and superoxide ions are needed.