Husband is in surgery right now getting the Lvad heartmate 3
Thu, 01/31/2019 - 2:01PMMy husband was diagnosed with CHF in 2014. In 2017 he had a stroke and his heart enlarged and as time went on, his heart health declined a lot. Last week, while I was pumping gas, my husband, son (5 yrs) and daughter (2yrs) were in the car and my husbands ICD fired. HIs ICD fired a total of 54 in 40 mins. The icd blew out machines in the ambulance. My son is traumatized by the whole ordeal. My husband is currently undergoing surgery for the LVAD heartmate 3.
What can I expect?
Has anyone experience thier icd firing with a lvad?
Will we, as a family, get our Patriarch back?
Thanks in advance for all your information and advice?
Hopefully the surgery went…
Mon, 03/04/2019 - 4:59PMHopefully the surgery went well. At best he is going to be very weak and need a lot of help from you for the immediate future. It will get better as he gets stronger. If everything went well with no complications be could be out and home within 10 days of surgery.
To answer your question on the ICD firing, yes it has happened to me 11 times over the last two years. Three times before I was even released to come home. The LVAD and ICD Do not play well together. Medtronic had to come in and turn part of mine off. Then when I got home it went off a few more times because of an imbalance between my lasix and potassium. If the aren’t balanced perfectly it will fire. Last but not least after being home for six months after receiving my LVAD it fired again while I was on a golf course. Come to find out I was in a vtach storm and the ICD did exactly what it was suppose to. Ended up spending 10 more days in the hospital where they ended up doing a cardiac ablation. Been fine for going on two years since that episode so the ablation worked.
The LVAD will make life so much better but it doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be future heart problems that have to be addressed. While the LVAD helps by pumping my blood, I still have a heart that is basically shot.