Four days later, a long overdue heart catheterization was done during which Drs. discovered that not only was Andrew's left ventricle in bad shape, but that his right ventricle was also beginning to fail. Unfortunately the BiV pacing was no longer effective. We started looking into options as far as when and where Andrew could be evaluated for a heart transplant......but there was a problem, he had only been in remission from his cancer for just over a year. He now had questionable lymph nodes in his chest.
July 18th five months after the devastating news of his last heart cath, he recieved his Heart Mate II Left Ventricular assist device along with bypassing his leaky pulmonary valve with a pig valve and conduit.
The questionable lymph nodes were also removed and proved to be cancer free and determined to be sarcoid. All of this in a 14 hour operation with Dr. Alfieris at the helm under the guidance of Dr. H. Todd Massey and his transplant team, paving the way for more congenital hearts at Golisanos' in Rochester to receive this life saving option as a bridge to transplant. He was home by August 2nd and in cardiac rehab.
Within a few weeks he was anxious to get back to work full time so that is exactly what he did. At the dinner table each evening he'd share stories of the funny questions he'd been asked throughout the day by either customers or the general public. You see, an LVAD currently consists of the internal pump that drives blood through the heart and is "plumbed" into the Left ventricle and again to the aorta. It also has external components consisting of a controller worn around his waist and 2 batteries attached to the controller and worn in a vest with holsters. At night Andrew connects to a power station plugged into the wall while the batteries charge.
For his own safety (to lessen the chance of rejection due to his already compromised immune system) we were told a transplant should not be done for another 4 years. Drs. began adding and fine tuning several different heart medications in an attempt to prevent the worsening heart failure . Kara and Andrew decided to move up their wedding and on June 16th 2011 were married in a small ceremony witnessed by close family and best friends.
By July 11th Andrew was in end stage heart failure, in the hospital, on Milrinone. Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon, Dr. George Alfieris of Golisano Children's Hospital in Rochester, NY visited Andrew to offer him a life saving option. Being a congenital heart patient had afforded Andrew now 25 the best of both worlds...... He would be Dr. Alfieris' first Left Ventricular Assist Device implant. On July 15th Andrew was transported via pediatric ambulance from Syracuse to Rochester, where on Monday