World's Smallest Heart Pump Gets Rave Reviews From A Local Patient
70 year old William Cobb is a single parent to 11 year old Christopher who has a lot of energy.
Over the last year Cobb began losing his energy and was having a tough time breathing.
He says he almost had a heart attack while wrestling his son on the couch one night.
Not only was he unable to keep up with Christopher, he was having trouble with a simple walk out to the mailbox.
His heart was only working at 10% capacity.
Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Amir Haghighat was one of the first doctors to treat Cobb.
"Our surgeons found him to be exceptionally high risk for open heart surgery with the concern he might be able to survive open heart surgery and all the stress that it involves," says Haghighat.
Doctors tried medication to strengthen Cobb's heart, but it didn't work.
That's about the same time the Impella was introduced to Bay County.
Dr. Haghighat describes it as "a small pump that's inserted through a small incision in the groin site up to the heart where the pump moves blood from inside the left ventricular cavity of the heart out of the body supplying the brain and the tissues and the organs, kidneys, the heart arteries themselves."
Cobb's surgery was in May. At his August 18th follow up visit he got outstanding news.
His heart function has improved from 10% to 35% on the most recent echocardiogram.
Normal heart function is 55%.
Cobb says he has much more energy and Christopher loves having his dad back.
Last week they were able to build and install a shelf for Christopher's room together.
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