Jetta Talley, 51, never would have thought that a nagging pain in her chest and back would leave her with a failing heart just days later. What she discounted as tension prolonged for four days and when it started to get worse, she had her husband drive her to the Seton Northwest Emergency Department. "When they told me I was having a heart attack, I couldn't believe it."

Talley was transported to Seton Medical Center given the seriousness of her condition. As tests continued, it became apparent that her heart was not the only problem. She had an ovarian cyst that had ruptured, causing her to bleed internally. "After they fixed the ruptured cyst, I was prepped for a quadruple bypass," remembers Talley During the surgery Talley's surgeon, Mark Felger, MD, with Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons, realized her heart would not be able to recover on its own when taken off the bypass machine. Dr. Felger hooked Talley up to the Abiomed Ventricular Assist Device to help her heart resume pumping.

The road to recovery was slow going as Talley's body developed an allergic reaction to the blood thinner Heparin which she was given to help the Abiomed device work better. Luckily, the SETON Heart Center staff and physicians were trained in offering an alternative device. Talley was taken back to surgery to replace the Abiomed with a HearfMate Ventricular Assist Device. After spending almost three months in the hospital, Talley was allowed to go home - hooked up to the HeartMate and on the waiting list for a heart transplant.

Almost four months after her heart attack on August 23, Talley got a call one evening from her SETON Transplant Coordinator to say a donor heart had been found that was a match for her. Talley and her husband, Tom, rushed to Seton Medical Center for the transplant operation. "Dr. Felger did my prep work while his partner, Dr. (Michael) Mueller got the donor heart ready. It took them more than four hours to remove the HeartMate device from my body and 20 minutes to insert my new heart," comments Talley. "When I woke up in the recovery room, the only tubes that were coming out of my body were the IVs. I was so relieved, and they let me go home just a week later."

It Won't Happen to Me

Jetta Talley admits that being a smoker for 30 years probably had a lot to do with her heart attack and need for a new heart, as did her long family history of heart disease on her father's side. "But I think it was the stress from my job that triggered it," comments Talley, who had been in public education for 28 years. My biggest problem was that I didn't know how to say 'no' when people asked me to take on new tasks."

Talley became a little skeptical about her health five years ago. Her primary care doctor didn't think she needed a cardiac stress test because her weight was in check, though she subsequently was put on a cholesterol-lowering medicine, daily aspirin and folic acid as preventatives - none of which could ultimately offset her other risk factors and protect her from the near-death experience she faced last year. Fortunately for Talley with the help of mechanical heart assist devices, a short wait on the transplant donor list, a comprehensive team of medical support and a big stroke of luck, she has been given a second chance at life.

Mechanical Heart Devices Buy Precious Time

Beating the clock takes on a very literal meaning for a person whose heart is failing. Up until about 10 years ago, there was not much that could be done for serious heart failure beyond drug therapies, hope and prayer. However, treating heart failure got a major boost in the early 1990s with the invention of heart assists devices. The SETON Heart Center and SETON Heart Center Transplant Program embraced this new technology early on and were at the forefront of offering patients heart assist devices as lifesaving options. Over the past nine years those options have grown. Patients have access to the most advanced devices available, which are now smaller, more portable and support both sides of the heart.

"There are various ways in which a heart assist device is used to sustain a patient's circulatory system," explains Bill Kessler, MD, SETON's Medical Director of the Mechanical Circulatory Assist Program. "Sometimes after bypass surgery, a person's heart is not able to start pumping again on its own so we use a device to let the heart rest and recover. In other situations, a person's heart failure is so advanced that the heart assist device buys precious time until a transplant donor heart is found."

The value of heart assist devices is obvious when considering the scarcity of donor organs.

"Supporting a patient's circulatory system after surgery and maintaining cardiac function in patients awaiting heart transplants are among our greatest challenges," says Dr. Kessler, who practices with Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons."

The SETON Heart Center began offering heart assist devices as an option to patients nine years ago with the introduction of the Abiomed Ventricular Support System. SETON was one of the first healthcare facilities in Texas to utilize this device. The HeartMate was added to SETON's services three years ago, which allows patients the option of going home while being connected to the device and runs either on electricity or batteries. A third device, the Thoratec, is now available as an option that is portable and can support both sides of the heart. The Abiomed and HeartMate devices support the left side only The SETON Heart Center was one of the first three testers nationwide of the Thoratec system.

"By offering patients in Central Texas these advanced options, we are making it possible for them to receive care close to home. Heart failure is not just a condition of the aged. It is something that can occur in a person's prime as a result of a heart attack or infection in the heart," comments Dr. Kessler. "Our goal is not only to care for our patients' health, but also protect their quality of life, which is why the heart assist devices play such a critical role in their recovery"