Amy's Blog

Ruby Sings its Praises

  Heart failure. That's the diagnosis that about 670 thousand Americans get each year. How frightening would the news be to you?  It means the heart is having a tough time pumping blood through your body. Because a weak heart pumps less blood, the body gets less oxygen. This can make a person feel tired, and weak doing even the simple things, like walking or eating.

Increasing numbers of patients with advanced heart failure have been placed on a heart transplant list , but there's a limited number of available and suitable donors. The exciting news is there's now access to improved devices as a viable option to a transplant.  That's where the ventricular assist device comes in and Ruby.

   Roby Howell, now 58 years old, was one of those people who learned she had congestive heart failure in 2005. She thought her problem with shortness of breath was coming from broken ribs due to a car accident. But a closer look through an echo cardiogram found otherwise. Ruby, who had been the choir director at her church, Galilee Baptist here in Nashville, couldn't get out of her seat she was so winded.

 Fast forward to July of 2011. Ruby finally agreed to a ventricular assist device, or VAD. In simple terms, it's a blood pump. It does NOT replace the heart. Patients, like Ruby, need to have surgery to implant the device. Because the device helps move more oxygen rich blood, VAD patients often have more energy than before.

   Last night, Ruby got to share some of her story with guests at the launch of St. Thomas Heart's new VAD Center. She is featured in the hospital's campaign to educate the public about this exciting new direction for St. Thomas Heart.  Ruby told me the "VAD" gives you back all you lost. She is now back to doing what she loves; directing the choir at church. Ruby says she wouldn't go through a heart transplant even if it was available because she feels so good.

    Other VAD patients shared their experiences with us last night, including Dr. Jerry Blevins, a practicing physician in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Earl Page, a retired military man from Gilbertsville, Kentucky, who is back to doing what he loves, fishing, and retired nuclear engineer James Crittenden, who now travels with his wife around the country and enjoys his golf game back home in Ooltewah, Tennessee. They are all shining examples of new hope for the future for patients with ventricular assist devices.

   St. Thomas Heart is the only certified Destination Therapy program in Middle Tennessee that can deliver this emerging technology to patients to help them get their lives back. 

   Ruby says it's the beginning of a new life for her, not the end of the world. Once in a while she forgets to check her battery that has to be charged to keep her pump going but that, according to Ruby, is because she's so used to the VAD. Ruby is raising her voice in church and at events like last night's hoping that others in her shoes won't have to suffer, but have a future to look forward to if they get a diagnosis like she did long ago.  There is hope.       

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