Jerome Wilson's Story
Jerome Wilson has been an athlete all his life. His heart failure journey began 20 years ago. He found himself unable to walk up a flight of stairs without feeling tired and horribly short of breath. In early 2013 Jerome’s condition had deteriorated to the point where a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) might be his best option for improving not only his quality of life, but also his chances for survival.
“The only thing wrong with me is my heart — everything else is great. When it came time to talk about getting an LVAD, I knew vaguely what it was, but not to the degree I was about to learn."
In May of 2013, Franics Pagani, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiac surgeon and director of the Center for Circulatory Support, implanted Jerome’s LVAD, and Jerome describes how his athlete's competitive instincts served him well in his recovery: "After the surgery, they had me on my feet as soon as I woke up. When I found out that the shortest amount of time for someone to stay in the hospital after having an LVAD put in was 10 days, I said I was going to do it in nine days. I did it in 13 days.
Before I could leave the hospital, my wife and I had
Before I could leave the hospital, my wife and I had to understand each alarm and what to do if the alarm went off. We learned how to read the battery life screen and to know if the batteries were fully charged or not. I'm healthy enough now to take showers. There's a special bag to put my device/controller in. And I can change my own batteries".
Jerome admits to an adjustment period with his LVAD: "With the LVAD, my lifestyle has changed. I could see how someone could be depressed about this. I'm carrying this 5 lb. bag around all the time — it's with me everywhere I go. I can't just set it down and walk away. I take everything in stride, though."