Impella pump assists patients with severe heart disease

Doctors insert the pump through a catheter that enters the heart through its main artery, the aorta. The pump is about the size of a triple A battery. It spins rapidly, like a corkscrew, propelling blood backward from the left ventricle out to the body to maintain circulation.

Hani Kozman MD
“It‘s for the really, really sick patients, for whom there is no alternative,” said Kozman, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Upstate.
David Grugan was just such a patient earlier this year. The 62-year-old Auburn man said he has come close to death twice and is grateful to Dr. Kozman and the Impella, made by Abiomed. After a heart attack in 2009, Grugan had four stents placed to prevent blockages in his coronary arteries. Later, Luna Bhatta MD, Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory, implanted a defibrillator in his chest that would automatically restart his heart if it stopped beating.

“I thought I was going to be there for the weekend, because I had this done on a Thursday,” he recalled. But the day after the procedure, Kozman said Grugan could go home.
He said he had some pain at the procedure site for three weeks afterward but has recovered well. His symptoms have improved significantly and he is able to continue on with life as usual.