Several years ago, Ruby Moody suffered two heart attacks and flat-lined in the hospital. Today, the 79-year-old is going strong, thanks to her left-ventricular assist device.
"I would fully recommend it to anyone that loved life like I love life, to go that route," Moody said.
Left ventricular assist devices, or LVADs, remove blood from the left ventricle of the heart and pump it into the aorta. The device was once used as a temporary solution to keep patients alive until a heart transplant, but the pumps are now being used as a permanent treatment for many patients.
"It’s a good thing, and for those patients who need it, it's lifesaving," said Dr. David Rawitscher, medical director of the Congestive Heart Failure Clinic at The Heart Hospital Baylor.
The newest LVADs are smaller, more durable and provide continuous flow. Now, researchers are studying whether they can actually heal hearts. Doctors are implanting LVADs temporarily in hopes that they will shrink enlarged hearts and reverse some of the damage. Then, they'll remove the devices.
Moody plugs in her battery-powered pump every night. It takes some effort, but Moody and everyone who sees her says the device has changed her life.
"Her quality of life drastically improved. She's back to doing the things she loved," explained Crystal Gibbs, LVAD coordinator at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano.
"I have more energy; I can watch my great grandson play football," said Moody.
More than five-million Americans have heart failure and about 150,000 suffer from chronic, severe heart failure. There are about only 2,100 donor hearts available each year, so LVADs are an important treatment option for patients who can't get a donor heart right away.
DOWNLOAD and VIEW medical blueprint
from 69News:Home http://ift.tt/1z6DTui
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire