Duncanville » News

By DANIELLE PARKER
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:23 PM CDT

News Editor

In the midst of any serious medical condition, it is difficult to be hopeful. Yet for Lois Coker of Duncanville and her family, one significant surgery brought a ray of hope to her diagnosis.

Coker began a struggle with breast cancer more than six years ago. Eventually she won that battle, but soon realized she had another fight to face.

"After all of the chemotherapy and treatments I went through, I was really weak," Coker said. "I thought it was pneumonia at first, but I got to a point where I couldn't even get out of bed."

Doctors determined that her heart was beginning to fail due to the intensive treatments Coker had endured. The new diagnosis of heart failure took a toll on her physically and emotionally according to her family.

"She was always tired, Kristin Roberts, Coker's niece said. "She was not as active as she used to be and she wasn't willing to go anywhere."

Because she was not eligible for a heart transplant, Coker faced several months of hospital visits and tests, until February when she was sent to Medical City in Dallas. It was here that Coker was introduced to a personal left ventricle assist device.

"The LVAD is a device that is placed in patients that need a heart transplant but are not able to have one at this time," Suzie Robinson, Medical City public relations representative, said. "Because only a portion of the patient's heart, in this case the left ventricle, is not operating properly, we have implanted this device, and it certainly adds time and quality to her life."

The version that Coker has is called the HeartMate 2, which weighs about eight ounces and sits in her diaphragm area.

"An axial flow device pushes blood forward and circulates it through the heart," Darinka Savor, RN, LAVD coordinator, said. "The patients heart continue to work because the heart is supplying the blood that this device pumps through the body."

Because Medical City is the only hospital in North Texas that does this type of surgery, its staff trains local hospital staff on how to handle emergency situations. April 1, Duncanville Fire Department's EMS team received a crash course on the ins and outs of the LVAD. Through this session, Coker can be confident that she would be well taken care of, according to Robinson.

"We train the people around them in the case that the patient had any type of emergency, they would know what to do," Robinson said. "We train their families, their coworkers, their city. We see this as an 'it takes a village' type of procedure."

Cities like DeSoto and Cedar Hill have also received instruction on how to treat and assist its residents who use an LVAD.

Savor said there are several factors that determine whether or not a patient with heart problems needs an LVAD implant.

"There are two indications that we can implant this pump," she said. "One is a bridge transplant. These are patients that are eligible for a transplant, but we can not pick and choose when organs will be available, so they live on this device until such time we can get them listed. Destination candidates, like Lois, are not candidates for whatever reason, so we implant the LVAD to give them a better quality of life."

According to Savor, the LVAD has added quality to Coker's life and given her a freedom she didn't have before.

"She is in remission and doing very well and hopefully in the near future she will actually be transitioning to a transplant," Savor said. "Obviously, there are a few restrictions because now they are on a machine, but for the most part she can come and go and do as she pleases."

Coker's family is optimistic that she will be listed for a transplant soon, but for now, they say they are happy just to have her around.

"My point of view was as long as it kept her here I was all for it," Roberts said. "It may be a little more difficult for her to deal with, but she is here, and she can still be around all of her family. That's what really matters."

For more information about the LVAD and HeartMate 2, visit www.medicalcitytransplant. com.

For more of this story see this week's Duncanville Today newspaper!

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