Courtesy of The Leaf Chronicle
BY JIMMY SETTLE • October 10, 2010
Heart pump major milestone in regional health care
When a critically-ill patient had no other option for survival, his life was saved through the rare use of a new heart pump device that only about 7 percent of all U.S hospitals currently have. The hospital where it all played out wasn't Johns Hopkins, or Mayo Clinic — not even Vanderbilt or St. Thomas. It was Gateway Medical Center, here in Clarksville.
Officials at the hospital on Dunlop Lane — a far cry from the circa-1954 building that's currently being demolished on Madison Street — say instituting a new Abiomed Impella heart pump in cardiology is a major milestone in regional health care.
The patient, Anthony Hall, and his wife, Dawn, formerly of Miami, Fla., have lived in Clarksville for the past four years. They say residents here are lucky to have the personalized, quality care that Gateway now provides.
The lead physician in the procedure that saved Anthony Hall's life back in August was Gateway interventional cardiologist Dr. David Amlicke. "This doctor, and this hospital, have done wonders for my life," Hall, 54, said.
He still faces the likelihood of needing a heart transplant in the next few years, but the prognosis is much-improved after the Impella procedure. The Impella is the world's smallest heart pump, and now part of Gateway's treatment options to assist critically ill patients who are experiencing advanced cardiac failure or shock in recovering from a heart attack. The Impella 2.5 catheter-based heart pump gained clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2008. Impella works by temporarily relieving the heart's pumping function and providing the time needed to initiate life-saving interventions.
The pump is inserted through the skin in the catheterization laboratory via the femoral artery into the left ventricle, a procedure that lasts just a few minutes. Up to 2 1/2 liters of blood are delivered by the pump from the left ventricle into the ascending aorta, providing the heart with active support five times faster than current industry devices, Amlicke said, and three to five times more blood flow than the present standard of care.
"Our team can now perform cutting-edge, life-saving cardiovascular procedures in a matter of minutes," Amlicke said. "Impella 2.5 is a breakthrough technology that offers our physicians a minimally invasive approach in cardiac treatment and will help change the industry standard of care in the cath lab with its seamless and immediate circulatory support for critical patients."
Hall has had a history of heart trouble going back to 2000. He underwent bypass surgery in 2001, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after which his blood vessels leading to the heart became severely blocked, according to Amlicke. In August, he had a heart attack. "Mr. Hall was so ill, that he couldn't sit up in the bed without getting short of breath," Amlicke said.
Last week, Hall was up and walking around the halls of the hospital during an interview with this writer — looking so healthy that he stunned even Amlicke and John Muccillo, director of Gateway Cardiovascular Services. "It's amazing to see him looking so good now," Amlicke said, "because his heart was too weak to undergo even the most simple of procedures."
Amlicke said he believes Gateway is stepping into the reputable league of U.S. hospitals. "When I think of a really reputable hospital, it's the complicated patient that sort of sets the bar. We've been given whatever resources we need to make this one of the stellar hospitals in this part of the country," said Amlicke, a 15-year cardiologist with 3 1/2 years of interventional, or invasive cardiology experience. "Maybe two years ago, Mr. Hall would have been deemed an impossible case. Every one of his vessels was deteriorated. When he came to us, not one of us in cardiology here, at Vanderbilt or St. Thomas, thought balloon or stent procedures were an option for him. His clinical situation forced us to be very aggressive. "As a result, Gateway is now able to provide care to the sickest, of the sickest, of the sickest," Amlicke said.
Muccillo said Gateway has gained extensive backing in expanding its cardiology services from every direction, including its corporate parent — Community Health Systems of Franklin. Gateway is the first hospital in the nationwide, 250-hospital CHS network to do the Impella procedure.
In addition to the Impella, Gateway cardiology also has added innovative intravascular ultrasound. "We're not a small town anymore," Muccillo said. "We're a growing city, that's attracting industry, and we just owe it to the community to provide this quality of care locally. "We've actually had this technology for about a year now," he added, "but it's a very finite group of patients that are sick enough to need this. We want to have all the tools in our toolbox regardless of how often we use them."