A Tri-Cities hospital now has the ‘world’s smallest heart pump.’ It could save your life

Carroll Ferguson knows a couple things about the heart pump that helped save his life.

“It must be itty-bitty,” he said. “And it worked wonderfully.”

The 71-year-old Pasco man is right on both counts.

Interventional cardiologists at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland used the small device — a catheter, or flexible tube, with a motor inside — to help keep Ferguson’s weakened heart pumping while they opened up blocked coronary blood vessels.

It was the first time an Impella pump — dubbed the “world’s smallest heart pump” — has been used in the Tri-Cities.

But it won’t be the last, Ferguson’s doctors said.

“It is a huge addition to our armament” to treat higher-risk patients, said Dr. Iyad Jamali, one of Kadlec’s interventional cardiologists.

“It makes it easier for the heart to pump during complex procedures,” added colleague Dr. Fadi Alqaisi.

“We reserve it for sick patients, weak hearts, complicated blockages. It makes our procedures safer and more effective and it helps our (patient) population to stay local” instead of having to be transferred elsewhere, Alqaisi said.

Ferguson’s procedure happened a few weeks ago, after he experienced chest pain.

He wasn’t a good candidate for open heart surgery, and interventional cardiology procedures such as angioplasty and stent placement — both of which are done using catheters — also would have been too risky.

But the Impella made the difference, allowing for the hospital’s interventional cardiologists to do their thing.

“Not only did he survive, he did extremely well,” said Jamali, who performed the procedure with Alqaisi and Dr. Abdelazim Hashim.

Soon, they expect to expand the use of the device even further — using it to stabilize surgical patients and those with some emergency issues such as cardiogenic shock, in which the heart can’t pump enough blood, usually because of a heart attack.

The pump pulls blood from the heart’s left ventricle and expels blood into the aorta.

It’s not left in indefinitely, but is a temporary help.

Ferguson is happy with his results.

He hails from Texas, and moved to the Tri-Cities to be closer to family here. He’s back at home in Pasco, feeling great.

“I was about to go to the cleaners,” he said, meaning his prognosis was grim. So, “I’m doing pretty damn good.”