Macs Green – credit, family photo supplied to the BBC
From the UK comes the story of a baby called Macs, who seemed poised for final-stage heart failure, but who has been saved by a device called a Berlin Heart.
The only device of its kind available for babies and children with severe heart failure, the Berlin Heart takes over pumping of the heart while the patient awaits a transplant.
A seemingly normal baby, Macs Green suddenly suffered two cardiac arrests and was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease which can lead to heart failure.
From his hospital bed at Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital where he sat on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, the doctors told his parents Dylan and Catrin, that they should make preparations for an end of life scenario.
Then, it became clear that Macs could receive a Berlin Heart, a type of ventricular assist device (VAD) that works through air power to mechanically pump the heart to send blood around the body.
Manufactured in Berlin, the device has changed pediatric cardiology in a dramatic way. It comes in two formats, INCOR and EXCOR, with the former supporting left ventricular flow and the latter providing comprehensive heart support. The first European Berlin Heart patient received the device in the year 1990, and the first American received one in 2000.
– credit, family photo supplied to the BBC
In 2012, a toddler set a record for living with the EXCOR for 2.5 years, while in 2014 there had been 1,500 Berlin Hearts fitted to children and infant patients.
“It means he can come off the drugs which have been sedating him. Since then, he’s a completely different baby,” Dylan said of his 3rd son after receiving the Berlin Heart.
“He’s smiling, he’s responding to us. Before now, he’s just been a small baby lying on a bed.”
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His wife Catrin agreed, saying that since the operation it has been “like having our baby back,” and that Macs was “absolutely thriving.”
It’s unclear how long Macs will have to wait to receive a heart transplant. It may take years, but it seems the Berlin Heart is up to the challenge.
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