For the VAD men, gym time keeps them ticking

With all the hustle of the holidays. finding time to work out can get a bit tricky, but for the “VAD Men”, gym time is precious.

Each week they come to pump iron , even though their hearts aren’t able to pump blood.

Nine months ago, Gerard Hoffart was on vacation in Mexico, when disaster struck.

“Two days after I got there, I had a blood clot on the left side of my heart.”

Hoffart went into heart failure and when he returned home to Calgary, he was told he would need a heart transplant.

To get strong enough for the transplant, Hoffart was told he would have to exercise, but in order to exercise, he would need to have a healthy heart.

Instead he got a “VAD”.

“VAD” stands for Ventricular Assist Device,” says Hoffart. “Basically it’s a device that’s attached directly to the heart and takes over the pumping function for the heart.”

Hoffart and other VAD recipients work out at a rehabilitation gym at the Foothills Hospital known as the “VAD boy gym”.

Every member wears a battery pack that powers a life-saving device attached to their heart, allowing the heart to continue to function until it can be replaced.

“It gives them not only a quantity of life but a quality of life,” says Dr. Deborah Isaac, the director of the cardiac transplant program at the Foothills. “These guys are guys that couldn’t get out of bed, that couldn’t go across the room without being short of breath, and now look at them in the gym.”

It can take months for a donor heart to become available , but Hoffart says he’ll be ready, and has no plans to slow down while he’s waiting.

“Before the VAD I could barely walked across the room . The other day, I walked the zoo, there’s that much of a difference in energy.”

There are currently nine VAD patients in Calgary.