Cardiac surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center make history as Shawn Henson becomes the first U.S. patient to receive the new third generation VentrAssist heart pump.
Heart pump recipient Shawn Henson with his wife Alaphia.
Shawn Henson’s life changed drastically in May 2005, just after his first wedding anniversary. Suddenly, the 40-year old Baltimore man could barely walk without becoming breathless, and his legs began to swell.
“It was like a light switch on my life turned on and off. One minute I’m fine, the next minute I’m short of breath and don’t know what’s going on,” Henson said.
Simple things like walking became difficult for Henson. “I was out of breath, going from point A to point B felt like I ran a marathon. I couldn’t even walk up a flight of steps,” he said.
One night he came home and told his wife he wasn’t feeling well. “My legs started to swell before my eyes. And I told her, we have to go to the hospital now.”
They went to the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), where he was diagnosed with end stage heart failure (cardiomyopathy). Henson was treated for his symptoms and doctors implanted a defibrillator just in case, then he was allowed to go home. But his symptoms persisted.
“After I left the hospital the first time, I tried to fight it as much as I could, but I got sick all over again,” recalls Henson. In July 2005, just two days before Henson and his wife were going to Las Vegas for a belated honeymoon celebration, he told his wife to take him back to the hospital “I told her, ‘Sweetheart, we’re not going to make Vegas, just take me to the hospital so I can get the attention I need.’ So we cancelled the trip.”
Options Explored
According to UMMC cardiologist Erika Feller, Henson’s symptoms had progressed quite rapidly, which can frequently be the case with his type of heart failure (familial dilated cardiomyopathy).
“When he was first diagnosed we got him better in terms of symptoms and he went home but did not do well and within a short period of time he came back to us,” said Dr. Feller, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “As an outpatient we knew he was failing medical therapy so we brought him in again for IV medication, but he was still failing that so we knew he was not going to be able to wait for a transplant, which was our ultimate goal.”
According to Dr. Feller, his condition was so severe that doctors started to think about heart pumps as an option to hold Henson over until a transplant could take place.
“For patients with end-stage cardiomyopathy, the heart is severely weakened. That’s when we think of blood pumps for patients who can’t wait for transplant,” said Dr. Feller. “These patients are failing medical therapy. We have a variety of pumps for these patients. The donor pool is scarce so it’s really helpful to have blood pumps to transition patients to transplant safely.”
Doctors discussed the possibility of several different types of heart pumps with Henson, and then he was asked if he wanted to participate in an investigational study to test a new, third generation heart pump known as VentrAssist.
The VentrAssist was primarily designed as a permanent alternative to heart transplants, but for this U.S. pilot study, it is being tested only as a bridge to transplant, so it is offered to patients who are listed for a heart transplant. The University of Maryland Medical Center is part of a five-center, 10-patient pilot study of the VentrAssist pump, which has been implanted in more than 30 patients in Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
The VentrAssist pump assists the heart’s main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, by using centrifugal force to provide blood flow. It weighs 10 ounces and measures 2.5 inches in diameter. It pumps the same volume of blood as larger pumps, but its small size takes up very little space in the abdomen, potentially making it useful for smaller adults such as Henson.
“We had other pumps to show him which were already approved by the FDA and were more established therapies — like the Jarvik 2000 and the Novacor pumps,” said principal investigator Bartley Griffith, M.D., chief of the UMMC Division of Cardiac Surgery and a professor of surgery at the UM School of Medicine. “He had other options, so it’s an interesting leap of faith.”
Cardiac surgeons at the University of Maryland Heart Center have implanted several models of these pumps, which have been refined after many years of use and are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).“The Medical Center’s mission is to advance the care of patients, and that requires the knowledge of the new technology and its use by selected patients,” said Dr. Griffith.
The Best Decision
Henson had his own reasons for selecting the VentrAssist.
“It needed to fit me. I didn’t want anything bulky, big and noisy,” he said. “That’s how this pump came into play. They decided it was small enough to fit in my body. It’s small, which is good because I’m slim, and it’s ultra quiet.”
So on July 14, 2005, cardiac surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center became the first in the U.S. to implant and Henson became the first patient to receive the new, third generation heart pump.
Although it was a scary situation for Henson, he says he made the right choice.
“I’m glad I made the decision and got the best pump. It was a little scary, but I kept my faith in God and made the best of it. And I’m here.”
“Almost Back to My Old Self’
Henson, who was released from the hospital on September 1, 2005, says he feels much better after the surgery. “I feel absolutely marvelous. I’m almost back to my old self,” he said. “Before, I was exhausted but now I’m probably going running. It’s beautiful, it really is.”
And he is grateful to his doctors at the Medical Center. “Everyone’s been great; the doctors did a very good job of keeping me as comfortable as possible.”
His wife Alaphia agrees. “I think they did a wonderful job. I really do,” she said. “They were in tune to what was going on with him and they kept on top of what was going on. They take wonderful care.”
Once he is well enough, what Henson looks forward to most is returning back to his job as a supervisor at McCormick and Company, where he has worked for the past 17 years.
“What I’m really looking forward to is going back to work because the guys at my job embraced me in a way I’ve never seen before,” said Henson. “That’s so important to me because you’d be surprised at how people many want me back there. They miss me.”
How does he feel being first person in U.S. with this pump?
“At first it was a little scary, but once I embraced it, everything else fell into place. I’m glad I picked it. It’s absolutely amazing. When they say it’s a bridge to life that’s exactly what this is, because I really didn’t think I was going to make it if I didn’t have it.”
By Michelle W. Murray
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