Avimael Santos was 39 years old when he suffered cardiac arrest and shock following a procedure to repair a heart valve. Dr. Charles Moore at the University of Texas Health Science Center implanted the BVS 5000, a temporary heart assist device. The BVS did the pumping for his heart for two weeks, after which he was switched to a longer-term device and received a heart transplant at CHRISTUS Transplant Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Since his transplant, Avimael and his wife have welcomed a new baby into their family.

Wolfram Schäfer, who comes from a small town in the Southwest part of Germany, lost most of his family members (many of whom smoked) to heart disease. They were all just in their 50’s or early 60’s. As a father of 5 children, he therefore took his own health very seriously. One day in July of 2006 he visited his family doctor for a check up. It was a good thing he went that day since his doctor noticed something strange on his EKG and sent him to a special clinic for further investigation. This clinic diagnosed an ongoing heart attack and immediately arranged for transport to the Westpfalz-Clinic in Kaiserslautern where he was sent directly into the Cardiac Catheter Lab.

What happened thereafter can only be told by others.  Mr. Schäfer underwent emergency quintuple bypass (5x CABG in the jargon) in an 11 hour marathon OP performed by a team of four surgeons. Since his heart was too weak to keep his body supplied with enough blood to survive and recover, surgeons emplaced an Impella LP5.0 catheter pump (see picture) into his heart so enough blood could be pumped through his body after the operation.

Thereafter, he lay in a coma for two weeks in the intensive care unit, his wife coming to visit him every single day, hoping for recovery. While he was still in a coma, his heart had recovered enough that the doctors could slowly wean him from the support of the Impella and finally remove it. Just a few days after that, he awoke from the coma to his overjoyed wife. Four weeks after the OP he could finally get out of bed to walk around. In February of 2007 he returned part time and in April, to full time work. Since then he could also enjoy one of his favorite activities again: bicycle riding.

Without the Impella, he never would have made it. He thanks his wife for her support and of course the team at Kaiserlautern who took care of him night and day. He also thanks the team at Abiomed for developing such life-saving technology. He often reflects back on this time and asks “What drives people to help their fellow man in such a way?” The answer, in his words, comes from his favorite Beatles song: “All you need is love”.

Matt Hess of Monk's Corner, SC was fourteen years old when he came down with some flu-like symptoms. Over the course of a weekend, he became so sick that he had difficulty getting himself dressed. That Monday, instead of taking him to see the family doctor, his mother drove him straight to the emergency room.

Shortly after arriving, Matt went into cardiac arrest, and he was airlifted via helicopter to MUSC for treatment. The clinical team worked on him for four hours before coming out to talk to his parents. Desperately ill from a virus that had attacked his heart, the doctors offered the family only two choices: do nothing and let him die, or put him on ABIOMED's BVS 5000 Circulatory Support System to let his heart rest and hopefully recover.

Of course, the family chose the option that had a chance of saving his life, the BVS 5000. Matt went into cardiac arrest another 4 times while they were implanting the device. Once implanted, however, the BVS 5000 took over the work for his heart and helped him stabilize.

Matt was unconscious for several weeks during this ordeal. When he began to regain consciousness, his mother and the nurses heard him uttering, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." When they asked him who he was talking to he said, "I'm thanking God that I made it."

After finding out how long he'd been in the hospital he added, "Do you know how much makeup homework I'm going to have?" At that point, his family knew that he was going to okay. "

There is no question, that machine saved my son's life," said Matt's mother, Robin Hess. "I think that this device belongs in every hospital."

Although the BVS 5000 did save his life, Matt still had a tough recovery ahead of him. His poor circulation meant that his kidneys stopped functioning correctly, and he required dialysis. In addition, his severe and sudden heart failure resulted in poor circulation to his feet and they needed to be amputated.

Now 16, Matt is back in school. Fitted with prosthetic feet, he enjoys playing basketball with his friends. MUSC will often contact him, and ask him to talk with other children who are going through similar medical ordeals.

Neil Sharp, 68, has a history of heart issues. In 1980, he had eight blocked coronary arteries that required open-heart surgery. Five years later, he needed an additional two coronary artery bypass grafts (CABGs). In 2001, he experienced another two blockages. With precious few "targets" left to be grafted onto, his surgeon, Dr. Richard Morrison at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee found one vessel he could graft to and used a TMR laser to revascularize the rest of the heart. Although the surgery was successful, he was unable to separate from bypass and required support on both sides of his heart with the BVS 5000. After six days on support, his heart's function returned and he was weaned off the device.

Mr. Sharp is feeling well, and has taken up walking, logging 4 to 6 miles a day. "I'm just blessed," he said. "Every day is a bonus day."

Ricky Walton's father had suffered from heart problems that required him to undergo a double coronary artery bypass. His mother died of a heart attack. His older brother died of a heart attack at the age of 44, and his grandmother was one of the first patients to be implanted with a pacemaker at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. So when Rick experienced numbness in his arms, he took it seriously: Although he'd been about to head out on a motorcycle trip to Biloxi, instead he drove himself directly to the hospital.

The doctors later told him that it was a good thing he did, because without immediate intervention in the face of the massive heart attack he'd suffered, he would have died. The surgical team did six off-pump coronary artery bypass grafts (CABGs). The surgery went well, but when he was being wheeled out of the ICU he ended up going into ventricular fibrillation, after which his heart was unable to recover. He was rushed back into the OR and was put onto a BiVAD BVS for six days, recovered and went home.

"Without the BVS, I don't think I would have had these extra years," said Mr. Walton. Not only is he a success story, he's also a good story of how successful BVS patients can be when they are implanted as soon as possible. "And I wouldn't have gotten to see my first grandson, and he's a blessing," he added.

A locksmith, Mr. Walton is back to work and back to enjoying the things he liked to do before the heart attack. He spends time with his grandson, enjoys motorcycle trips, and volunteers at the cardiac unit in the hospital where his life was saved, Baptist Medical Center, Princeton.

Rudranauth Persaud, a 44 year old software programmer, had just returned from vacation with his wife and three children when he began to experience chest pain. He was taken to North Shore University Hospital, where it was discovered he was having a heart attack. He was put on Bivad BVS support and later transferred to Mt. Sinai and switched to the AB5000, which supported him for two months while he awaited transplant.

Mr. Persaud has been discharged home following the transplant, and is recovering and making plans to return to work. " I am so thankful for that machine," said his wife Addie. "Without this machine he would have been dead. I saw first-hand how the AB5000 kept him alive."

Shirley Jackson of Thomaston, GA was on an outing with her grandchildren in July of 2002 when she began to not feel well. After lying down in the truck for a short while, her chest pains got worse, and her arm became numb. Her family cut the outing short to rush her to the hospital, where they found out she'd had a heart attack that damaged half her heart beyond repair. She was 52 years old.

Ms. Jackson's surgeon, Dr. Harvey at Medical Center Central Georgia implanted the BVS 5000 to support the left side of her heart. It was clear that she would need support while waiting for a transplant. Unfortunately, Ms. Jackson had a new job, which meant that she was only eligible for limited health coverage until she had been there for more than a year. Her surgeons began to look for a hospital that would be able to take her case.

After calling everywhere, a hospital was found: in New York. Dr. Jose Garcia at Montefiore Medical Center flew down, helped get Ms. Jackson on a transport plane, and flew her back up to the Medical Center. She was switched to a longer-term device and then transplanted. Dr. Garcia and Montefiore helped the family through every step of the process – not only was she successfully transplanted, but the hospital also helped make sure she could see New York City during her recovery. When it was time to return home, Dr. Garcia drove the family to the airport.

Two years later, Ms. Jackson is doing well, and enjoys shopping and spending time with her grandchildren. Dr. Garcia and his staff call almost monthly to see how she is doing.