by Lorine Parks
“It felt like a horse had kicked me in the chest.”
That’s how John Lemucchi described his 2015 heart attack. After waiting 203 days he was finally told he was eligible for the transplant of a totally artificial heart and he went to PIH Hospital in Whittier to receive it.
John stood before us and talked for half an hour, good complexion, sturdy build. Invisible to the audience, inside him is a totally artificial heart, about the size of two golf balls, doing the work for which the rest of us need a complex of chambers, ventricles, aortas and such.
Opening the chest to operate directly on an exposed heart is major surgery.
Fifty-five years ago, the cutting edge for damaged heart care was a heart-lung machine, known as “the pump,” bigger than a barrel, which temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery, maintaining the circulation of blood and the oxygen content of the patient's body. It shunts and circulates the patient’s blood for him for a maximum of 45 minutes, while his own heart is stopped and repaired by surgeons working in a bloodless field. That was open heart surgery in the 1950’s and 60’s.
The heroes who captured the public’s imagination were heart surgeons like Christian Barnaard of South Africa, who did the first heart transplant as one-by-one, hospitals revoked his privilege because all his patients died. Then at the last, came success. Revered innovators include Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley in Texas, Lillehei and Wangenstein in Minnesota, Blalock at Johns Hopkins, Robert Gross and Dwight Harken in Boston, Dr. Dwight Harken is considered one of the fathers of cardiac surgery and John paid tribute to him. Harken was also the founder of intensive care units for critically ill heart patients. During the Second World War Harker served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in London as a surgeon. To treat his patients, he found a way to take out shrapnel safely from the heart by cutting into the wall of a beating heart, then inserting a finger to locate and remove the shrapnel and bullets. He did this with 133 soldiers who had been shot in the heart. Every one survived.
By 1948, Dr. Harken discovered a way, similar to how he operated on soldiers, to correct mitral stenosis. A small hole would be cut in the heart and a finger would be used to widen the valve. In the 1960s, he developed the first device to help the heart pump. He also implanted artificial aortic and mitral valves.
Harken's 1951 concept of intensive care has been adopted worldwide and has improved the chances of survival of the patient.
The next breakthrough, was the first artificial heart to be successfully implanted in a human, the Jarvik-7 in 1982.
Since then, the progress has been staggering. Today John is the recipient of inventions and pioneering techniques many generations removed from those first daring and risky procedures.
As part of his recovery “prescription,” he does normal activities like yard work and exercises, like playing golf.
Not only is John a walking and talking example, but he is the press relations chair for Mended Hearts, the Whittier chapter of a support organization for over 20,000 successes, as these patients are termed. Dr. Harken, who had developed a keen interest in the emotional side of his patients’ experiences, also founded Mended Hearts.
PIH (Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital) in Downey is owned and operated by the PIH Hospital in Whittier where John had the work done.
The Whittier chapter of Mended Heats is a close-knit group, whose mission is improving the life of heart patients and providing support for their families through ongoing peer-to-peer support. They want to spread the word to others who are going through or have gone through the same experiences.
“If you know someone with heart disease or who is contemplating heart surgery, that’s why we’re here,” John said.
An example of problems survivors would encounter, “Insurance companies didn’t want to insure us if we had artificial hearts. They thought we would be too great a risk,” John said.
By 1990 the American Heart Association could show that those drivers with “mended hearts” were actually safer drivers than the average citizen.
How to adjust to a life with an artificial heart, or, how to take care of a loved one are the chapter’s major concerns. Education, support and hope are the aims of Mended Hearts.
In 2002, after developing hypertension, golf legend Jack Nicklaus partnered with Mended Hearts to help educate people about reducing their risk of heart attack. “The idea of the program is to educate people to make them aware of the possibility of their own health, get them to go to their doctor to find out what their cardiovascular risks are," Nicklaus explained.
"If they're like mine,” says Nicklaus, “I didn't know they were there. There are about three-quarters of a million people my age or older who suffer a heart attack each year and it doesn't have to be. Of course, 250,000 of those just drop over without ever seeing a doctor."
Although Nicklaus' new challenge could have been life threatening, now that he has the proper advice and medication, he is convinced it is a battle he can win.
When John opened the discussion to Rotarian’s questions and comments, Mike Pohlen, who had his own recent scare with heart problems, raised his hand and said to all present, “I told you. Get a check-up.”