A Community of Support for VAD Patients

Mary Hardiman thinks BWH cardiac nurses are the best, and she should know. The former MGH nurse, who is now a health care facility inspector for the Department of Public Health, has spent quite a bit of time with BWH nurses recently. Her husband Jay suffered a massive heart attack in April and required a three-month stay at BWH, where he was implanted with an electric left ventricular assist device (VAD) to help his heart pump.

“I’ve never seen better care than Jay got at the Brigham,” Mary Hardiman said, noting that her husband received care on Tower 12 before transferring to Tower 8AB. “The nurses were so supportive, and we were blessed to have them.”

The support didn’t stop when Jay was discharged to his Waltham home this summer. In August, Tower 8AB’s Joan Dorr, BSN, RN, and Cynthia Scherer, BSN, RN, visited the Waltham Fire Department to train firefighters and EMTs on responding to potential emergencies with Jay’s VAD.

This training in the community is par for the course for every single VAD patient who returns home. About 20 devices are implanted at BWH each year in patients who are awaiting transplant and patients who need the VAD as destination therapy. Right now, about 10 BWH patients with VADs live at home in communities throughout New England.

“Our patients are usually the first in their communities to have this device because BWH is among only a handful of hospitals in the area that implants VADs,” said Colleen Smith, NP, who usually trains responders in each community along with Leslie Griffin, NP. “Most of our patients with VADs do go home, and the beauty of that is they can actually live their life normally, putting them in better shape for their transplant than if they remained in the hospital.”

Smith has trained firefighters, EMTs and, in one small town in Maine, a group of volunteers. She also has trained staff from professional ambulance companies and air response to ensure that anyone who is in contact with the patient during an emergency knows what to do.

In Waltham, Scherer and Dorr explained the basics of how the VAD works and how to respond to several potential scenarios. Smith, Dorr and Scherer provided four sessions in Waltham so that every emergency responder received training.

This community training, coupled with in-hospital education, is key to patients’ health. “By educating patients before they leave the hospital, nurses ensure that they are comfortable and confident in what they need to do in case of an emergency,” Smith said.

“Thanks to the nurses, we never felt alone in this,” Mary Hardiman said, adding that nurses helped her and Jay through the initial shock of how a healthy man with no history of heart disease could end up on the transplant list waiting for a heart.

The Hardimans are optimistic that he will get one, noting that three of the men in their VAD support group—led by BWH nurses—have recently received transplants. But for now, they continue to vacation on the Cape, entertain friends and enjoy life knowing they are supported.