Profile picture for user Ellen.Cowan
Ellen C. Family Member

EMS Awarness

Fri, 03/20/2015 - 11:27AM
My father was recently implanted with the Heartmate II, as destination therapy. My family nor most of our SMALL community has ever heard of LVAD. His surgery and care is at DUKE Hospital NC which is a little over 100miles away from our home town. He has been there for 50 days already with no talk of discharge yet, but he is improving and they except him to eventually come home. My question to you all is, how and if you made the local EMS aware of your/loved ones LVAD? I know some of our EMS personally and they too had never heard of an LVAD as well as a lot of doctors/nurses at our county hospital (Which is NOT a small hospital either) that we have talked to during this process. We are from Greenville NC, please help if you can. This is his NTF page: http://patients.transplants.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=485635&supid=420299175&fb_action_ids=845681225490396&fb_action_types=og.shares&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B921618624555404%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.shares%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D#sthash.kFpIyciN
6296 reads
Profile picture for user RichmondLVAD
Henry R.

Sat, 03/28/2015 - 10:10PM
Hi, my name is Hank Richmond, and I received my LVAD in June 2014. As far as awareness goes, I have found very few medical people who know what an LVAD is, because they are so rare. I received my LVAD about 90 miles from home, at the University of Chicago. My local cardiologist has only seen a few LVADs. My family doctor had never seen one. The local hospital has seen very few. So, I get to educate the medical people as I go along. The best advice I got was from my brother the doctor, who told me to get all of my follow up appointments back in Chicago where I got my LVAD. It's 90 miles for an appointment, but absolutely worth it. I want ongoing help from the people who put this LVAD in and know what to do. Of course, in an emergency, this might be a problem being in my small town. My wife is well versed on my equipment and can help me as a liaison in an emergency if I can not speak for myself. Also, a person could wear a medical alert bracelet, so that medical personnel would see that and contact the right people for help. The truth is, in my case, in an emergency, I'm going to need a helicopter to the nearest LVAD facility. It's just a fact of life for me right now. I hope your father gets well soon and gets to come home to enjoy his life with his family.
Profile picture for user cartermom
Teresa H.

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 4:00PM
Hello! My father, too, got his LVAD yesterday also at Duke. I too would like to know about making our local EMS aware.
Profile picture for user willhyland
Jeff W.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 7:43PM
The first time I had to call for an ambulance, the EMS guys wanted to grab me and go. I had called the LVAD coordinator in advance and she said all equipment must come with me. The EMS said no and let's go. My wife called the coordinator back and put them on the phone with EMS and we packed it all up. It sounds like you have a task at hand to grab all the literature you can and start educating. My wife and I participated in a government grant to assist people with the decision making process of getting or not getting an LVAD. It will result in a pamphlet and a video. I don't know what stage of release this may be in. My surgery was done at Methodist Hospital in Houston Texas. The LVAD people there should know about it and if it is available.