EDMONTON – Kolby Zanier carries her heart around in her purse.
At first, it felt a little heavy on her shoulder at just over two kilograms with a controller and batteries and spares. But the 14-year-old is getting used to its weight, especially since it allows her to go home to Rossland, B.C., attend school like every other teenager, even run or play volleyball if she chooses, although swimming is now out and contact sports such as ice hockey would be iffy.
Kolby is the first pediatric patient in Canada to receive a HeartWare pump, a device patched into the severely damaged left ventricle of her heart that helps it pump blood through her body.
Until Kolby came along to try the new device, kids like her either needed a heart transplant – Kolby’s heart was in such bad shape she couldn’t wait any longer for a suitable donor heart – or a Berlin heart, a bulkier device that often requires patients to stay in hospital up to one year. The Berlin heart saves lives, but also comes with a 20 to 30 per cent risk of strokes caused by blood clots. The risk with the new HeartWare pump is far lower at four to five per cent.
The device has been approved in Europe for adult patients, but when Kolby came along, Dr. Holger Buchholz said he received quick approval from Health Canada to implant the device into her, since it was such a good fit.
Kolby is doing so well, she’ll be heading home to her friends and her silky terrier poodle named Mister after a few more days of training on how to keep her heart’s battery charged and its controller – or the brain of the heart – doing its job of pumping blood.
Buchholz believes the HeartWare device will eventually replace the Berlin heart completely and revolutionize heart care in the world.
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