UAMS surgeon performs successful implant of heart pump in child at ACH
OCT. 15, 2004 | Jonathan Drummond-Webb, M.D., chief of pediatric cardiovascular surgery and associate professor of surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine and chief of pediatric cardiovascular surgery at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), led a surgical team that recently implanted a child with a newly developed miniature heart pump. The teen-ager, the second to receive the heart pump, is now the longest survivor after receiving the device.
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 OCT. 15, 2004 | Jonathan Drummond-Webb, M.D., chief of pediatric cardiovascular surgery and associate professor of surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine and chief of pediatric cardiovascular surgery at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), led a surgical team that recently implanted a child with a newly developed miniature heart pump. The teen-ager, the second to receive the heart pump, is now the longest survivor after receiving the device. The surgery took place at ACH, an affiliate hospital where members of UAMS’ College of Medicine faculty, including Drummond-Webb, make up the majority of the medical staff. Fourteen-year-old Travis Marcus of Cabot, received the DeBakey VAD Child, the first such device approved by the FDA for use in children. Travis was born with a congenital heart defect and has undergone two surgical procedures and received three pacemakers. “There was no implantable heart pump device in this country that was allocated for children,” Drummond-Webb said. “In the past, cardiovascular surgeons have had to juggle adult pump devices which sit outside the body or the child has been placed on a heart/lung bypass machine.” The Debakey VAD Child, manufactured by MicroMed Technology, Inc., was designed to improve blood flow in children ages 5 to 16 who are awaiting a heart transplant. This ventricular assist device (VAD) will allow many patients to walk around and some may even return home while waiting for a transplant. The 1”x3” pump weighs only 4 ounces and is silent in operation, utilizing the same technology of the implantable adult pump, also manufactured by MicroMed Technology, Inc. Designed in collaboration with NASA, the Baylor College of Medicine and Drs. Michael DeBakey and George Noon, the DeBakey VAD is intended for end-stage heart failure patients who can no longer provide necessary blood flow with their native heart. DeBakey, 96, considered the father of modern cardiovascular surgery, attended an Oct. 13 news conference on the successful operation. He told The Associated Press he was “absolutely delighted and grateful” to see the 14-year-old patient doing so well. On Sept. 5, Travis was brought to the hospital because of a high heart rate and doctors soon learned that high heart rate was not due to a pacemaker malfunction but that the left side of his heart had stopped functioning. He was placed on the list for transplant but deteriorated so rapidly he had to be placed on a heart/lung machine in order to keep him alive. Thirty-six hours later, he underwent a complex surgery that entailed repair of his heart valves, extraction of the failed pacing system and implantation of the DeBakey VAD. “Travis is a high risk candidate for this. He is not a poster child because it’s a relatively new device and he’s a complex patient with a complex diagnosis,” Drummond-Webb said. “Without the DeBakey VAD, Travis wouldn’t even be alive because we would have been forced to take a sub-optimal organ.” The teen continues to get stronger, with daily physical therapy and laps around the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) which he charts on a dry erase board near the nurse’s station. Drummond-Webb began efforts to bring the DeBakey VAD Child to Arkansas more than a year ago, realizing the need for such a tool based on the number of patients who are treated in the Arkansas Children’s Heart Center, which is one of the largest and most reputable transplant centers in the United States. The success of the transplant program, and the presence of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation system (ECMO), or heart/lung bypass machine, were requirements for receiving the DeBakey VAD device. Few pediatric hospitals in the United States received the device, and Drummond-Webb made sure his team was prepared, in the event a patient at Arkansas Children’s Hospital was in need. The entire team of cardiologists, intensivists and nurses trained every week for the past year. “As long as he’s on this device, he’s stable,” says Drummond-Webb. He’s walking around and feeding himself and his organs are recovering and getting stronger which will make his body more prepared for a transplant when we get the right heart.” Although there is no prediction as to when a heart will be available, Drummond-Webb is confident that Travis will receive the right heart. He also believes this revolutionary pump will, at some point, become a standard of care for pediatric heart patients and stimulate research to develop an even smaller device for even younger patients.
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