The World’s Smallest Heart Pump Makes its Way to LLU

The Abiomed Mobile Learning Lab program made its first stop in California at Loma Linda University Health (LLUH) on Wednesday, April 1. The Mobile Learning Lab is designed to bring an extremely interactive learning experience of the world’s smallest heart pump, the Impella® 2.5, to a wide-range of hospitals throughout the country. This gives hospital’s staff like nurses and cardiologists an opportunity to get a hands-on learning experience with the Impella® 2.5. The Abiomed team of trainers demonstrated the process of the Impella® 2.5 in the Mobile Learning Lab, using many of the facilities the lab contained like Impella simulators and animations. According to LLUH, “The Impella® 2.5 is a percutaneous, through the skin, heart pump that offers hemodynamic support for patients that have been turned down for bypass surgery or are at high risk for percutaneous coronary intervention, patients in cardiogenic shock, and to stabilize patients before surgery or transplant.” Mary Watson of Phelan, California, is a patient that received the Impella heart pump that had a successful outcome and feels great after almost two years of having the procedure. With a family history of heart problems, Watson had a scan done about ten years ago that showed some blockage in her arteries. As she went to the doctors for an annual check-up and stress echocardiogram test in August of 2012, she was surprised when the doctors told her, “You’re not leaving, you’re being admitted and you may have surgery today.” Watson mentioned that she didn't have any severe pain indicators other than having subtle back pains when she would exercise and walk on the treadmill. However, after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery, Watson was still having these pains that she had prior to the procedure. It was when she told the doctors that she was still having this pain that Loma Linda University Health’s cardiologist Anthony Hilliard, MD, got involved. Watson explained, “Two of them (arteries) are 100% blocked and two are about 70% blocked. After that I had several procedures and then they finally decided they needed to drill out my left main artery and that’s when they used the Impella heart pump.” Watson was considered a high risk patient and that is what brought the Impella heart pump into play. However, even after the procedure, she continued to have these pains so the doctors kept running tests such as stress tests and angiograms, according to Watson. “They found the problem was further down in the LAD (Left Anterior Descending artery). The artery was too small to get a stent in there. Dr. Hilliard injected nitroglycerin into the artery and expanded the artery so he could put two stents in the end and I haven’t had the problem since then,” she explained. A pain-free Watson shared, “My experience here at Loma Linda and with Dr. Hilliard has been absolutely excellent. I've been treated very well from the very beginning through all of the procedures that I've had. When Dr. Hilliard became involved, he solved the problem. He wouldn't stop until he found the solution and wasn't content with me still having pains. He kept doing things until he fixed it… and now I've been good for about a year-and-a-half.” As a “Celebration of Life”, Watson and her husband Jim, as well as others, were invited to the Abiomed Mobile Learning Lab this past Wednesday afternoon for a brief lunch and to have the Abiomed team demonstrate exactly what the Impella pump did and how it lead her to the pain-free life she's living today. “The amazing part through all of this is that I have never had a heart attack and I have no damage,” Watson added. The Abiomed Mobile Learning Lab is making its way through various hospitals countrywide to train hospital’s staff about the world’s smallest heart pump, the Impella® 2.5.