Heart Transplant: Medical Devices

Transcript

In some patients they’re too sick to survive. And while waiting for a transplant, we do bridge therapy with what we call a ventricular assist device, which is essentially a mechanical pump that’s attached to the heart with tubes to and fro that help continuously pump blood through the circulation, helping the diseased heart that’s failing to keep up with the body’s demands. Some patients actually stay on the VAD because they don’t get a heart. And there are patients that actually get a VAD as a destination therapy, where they just stay with the ventricular assist device and they live with that for years, until something else catches up with them.