“Heart failure is a silent killer,” says Melvin, who suffered an unexpected heart attack at the age of 27 in the middle of an active life as a professional soldier. More and more people are dealing with heart failure, and it affects all ages. The heart failure left Melvin dependent on an assisted heart device (LVAD), a device that changed his life enormously.
“I suffered from the heart attack for more than 16 hours before I ended up in the emergency room. After all, I was still young and didn’t think it could be a heart attack,” says Melvin. His situation was already too serious for medical intervention and he simply had to hope that he would survive.
Two weeks later, symptoms of heart failure began; shortness of breath, dizziness and fainting several times. “I suddenly woke up on the floor with abrasions and a big bump on my head. Later I couldn’t even function independently anymore.” Within six weeks after the heart attack, Melvin was diagnosed with heart failure, his heart was only functioning at 25 percent. When this heart function dropped to 5 percent, he was forced to have a supportive heart implanted. A supportive heart is a mechanical pump that supports and partly takes over the function of the heart chamber.
“I have had a supportive heart for nine years now. The first three years after the implant were intense, with five open heart operations, three of which were to replace the supporting heart. Fortunately, I have had the HeartMate 3 since 2018, and there have been no complications since,” he says. “I can now do almost everything I did before, although with adjustments. I therefore try to focus on what I can still do, not on what is no longer possible.”
Living with a supportive heart
Only one in five people is familiar with heart failure. “Most people know about a heart attack or infarction, but never think about what can happen afterwards and what it means for someone,” says Melvin. Life with a supportive heart is radical, you always visibly carry it with you. “I have to be constantly alert to everything. I have to make sure I always have enough power in my batteries. I have to make sure I don’t get any infections from the line coming out of my abdomen. And perhaps most importantly, I can’t get wet, so I have to be careful what I do. I always carry a backpack with all my belongings in it. This means that I can never do anything spontaneously, everything has to be planned and arranged. I have now found a good way to deal with it, but I do find it annoying.”
A temporary solution
A supportive heart is a good but often temporary solution for heart failure. However, Melvin has benefited from this for a very long time. “I chose to spend a long time with the support heart because I was still young. I have tried to add extra life support to it because a heart transplant does not offer eternal life either.” He has been on the waiting list for a donor heart for a month now, not knowing when he will be eligible for a heart transplant. “If I get a heart transplant, I hope to live another 30 years and during that time I will have a lot of fun. Enjoying all the beautiful things the world has to offer, continuing my work in Forensic Psychiatry and perhaps becoming a father if it is given to me.”
The UMC Utrecht implanted the first supportive heart in 1993. Approximately 40 patients receive a supportive heart every year. In the Netherlands, approximately 300 people live with an assisted heart and 175 of these patients have been treated in the UMC Utrecht. A specialized team works here every day on research into cardiovascular diseases and providing the best care.
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