One of the best and latest innovations in the field of cardiology and heart failure is Impella, the world’s smallest heart pump that helps the patient’s heart to recover after a major heart attack, is really a God- sent for all those who are suffering from heart failure. Not only does it help in the heart recovery but also helps in circulatory support while doing high risk complex coronary interventions particularly in the presence of severe pumping defect of the heart with significant area of damaged or dysfunctional heart muscle or unstable clinical status due to hypotension.
Recently, Dr. Viveka Kumar, Principal Director & Chief of Cath labs (Pan Max)- Cardiac Sciences at Max Hospital, Saket, New Delhi, saved critically ill patient with Impella who were unsuitable and high risk for Bypass surgery. Impella provided adequate mechanical circulatory support in stabilizing their clinical status, allowed to carry high risk interventional procedures very safely and helped them to recover fast with shortened hospitalization period. This hospital serves the entire geography of Delhi NCR and patients from other states of India also come here for the expertise of Dr. Viveka Kumar, who is well known for his vast experience in performing complex high-risk interventional cardiology procedures for more than 25 years.
One such incident happened when a patient named Sahas (Name changed), 78-year-old went there with symptoms of Massive heart attack with very low blood pressure. Dr. Viveka acted on time starting from proper counselling to the patient explaining the risk involved in the procedure without Impella till the discharge of the patient. The patient’s life was saved with Impella support for 6 hours giving another life not only to the patient but also to the entire family. During this support his blood supply to major organs like kidney, brain and liver was uncompromised due to the presence of Impella, Dr. Viveka said.
Dr. Viveka after completing the procedure shared that, had the patient not been with Impella, he would have collapsed on the table. He was given extended support with Impella after his blood pressures improved along with other parameters, Impella was removed and the patient was discharged. Even after a recent follow up he was doing good with a moderate pumping in the heart.
Dr. Viveka Kumar said, “the real meaning of Heart Recovery is not far from reach, if the patient presents themselves on time to the physicians and with the use of ultra-modern technology like Impella we can make more hearts to recover and it provides real hope in hopeless situations.”