The Vinmec Times City International Hospital has successfully installed a HeartWare ventricular assist device (HVAD) in a patient with end-stage heart failure, prolonging her life by up to seven years.

Doctors visit Tân at the Vinmec Times City International Hospital in Hà Nội. 

Vi Thị Tân, 34, of Mường Lát District, Thanh Hóa Province, has been suffering from heart disease for 10 years and had end-stage heart failure, enlarged cardiac muscle and a stroke.

She relapsed into a critical condition.

To save her life, Vinmec International Hospital’s doctors decided to immediately perform a transplant. After a five-hour surgery, she showed positive signs, with her artificial heart working well.

Now, a month later she has recovered and was discharged on April 4.

But doctors will continue to instruct her on how to take care of her health and use the HVAD device to improve the quality of her life.

“At the moment, I feel much better,” Tân said.

“I am reborn after the heart transplant surgery.

“I think I can cycle to work again.”

Prof Dr Bùi Đức Phú, a leading heart surgeon, said: “By becoming the first private hospital and the second hospital in Việt Nam to successfully perform the complicated technique, Vinmec has affirmed its position in the field of cardiovascular treatment in Việt Nam.

“Few hospitals in Việt Nam can transplant an HVAD artificial heart. Vinmec now has access to the latest technologies in the field of artificial hearts to meet the needs of many heart failure patients within and outside the country.”

Due to a lack of donors, only 29 patients have received heart transplants in Việt Nam since the first one in 2010, he said.

The HVAD artificial heart transplants bring hope to thousands of patients who have a heart transplant indication and are waiting for donors.

In 2017 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the HVAD system for patients with advanced heart failure who are not candidates for heart transplants. The HVAD system helps the heart pump and increases the amount of blood that flows through the body.

According to the Việt Nam Heart Association, around 1.6 million people are diagnosed with new heart failure each year. The heart failure fatality rate in the country is very high, with 50 per cent of patients dying within five years of detection.

With very few heart transplants being performed due to lack of organ donations from brain-dead donors, HVAD transplant has become a viable option. — VNS