Technology keeps patients alive while they wait for heart transplants

Jesse Capps spent a full day at work, 40 feet off the ground on a scaffold. His 39-year career in construction trades ended that same night. He became short of breath, went to the hospital, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure (CHF).

“It was a life-changing moment,” Capps recalls. “I’ve always worked in the field with my guys. I was always hands on. It was heartbreaking.”

For three years, Capps has been kept alive by a ventricular assist device, or VAD. It’s a small pump, implanted in his failing heart, to move blood sufficient for survival from the lower chambers of the heart to the rest of the body.

“I would have died within six months without it,” Capps says. “Now I’m living on batteries, electricity and faith. I live by faith, and this is completely up to God.”

Sometimes, a VAD is a permanent solution. In Capps’ case, his VAD is a ‘bridge’ to a hoped-for heart transplant. His condition is not critical enough to move him up on the transplant list. On a scale of one to five, he’s at four. His condition needs to decline to a two or a one to move him to the top of the candidate list. His case is being managed by doctors and nurses at Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk. 

Capps has a family history of heart disease. His parents both died from CHF. He’s happy to be alive and functional, though he is dependent on a device powered by batteries that he carries slung over his shoulder like a computer bag. At night, he plugs it in. The quiet hum of the device is a constant, but welcome, companion.

Johanna Nelson endured eight months of uncertainty and frustration until a doctor concluded she had CHF. In 2007, she was working as a supervisor in a call center and raising two children with her husband, including a son on the autism spectrum. Little wonder she was increasingly tired and short of breath when she went first to her primary care physician, then to multiple emergency departments, doing a pulmonary test and a sleep study. Finally, in 2009, a cardiologist ordered an electrocardiogram and diagnosed her with CHF.

Nelson got by with prescription medication for several years, but when that stopped working, she was fitted with a VAD in 2015. 

“I need it to survive now,” she says. “It can be depressing, but your body adjusts.” Her biggest frustration is her stamina; sometimes she finds herself holding onto grocery carts to walk, and she scans stores for places to sit in case she needs to rest.

“I worry about my weight,” she says. “If you’re too heavy, they take you off the transplant list. I have to be mindful of what I eat, especially if I get depressed sometimes and turn to food for comfort. But I know what I have to do.” Complicating her situation is having type O blood. She can receive a heart only from a type O donor.

Like Capps, Nelson is at stage four on the severity scale. She would have to decline to stage two or one, the worst condition, to move up the priority list. She’s thankful to be otherwise healthy and feeling all right day-to-day, because the need for a type O donor limits her prospects. “They’re few and far between,” she says.

Capps and Nelson are just two Virginians waiting for a heart transplant. Sentara Heart Hospital transplanted 23 hearts in 2023, but the waiting list continues. Some patients die waiting for organs that never come. Nelson is listed with VCU Health in Richmond due to her insurance, but the Sentara transplant team monitors her progress to minimize travel.

Capps and Nelson are two reasons Sentara supports and celebrates Donate Life Month in April each year, helping Donate Life Virginia spread the word about the never-ending need for donors to tick the box when they renew their driver licenses. You can register as a universal donor at www.donatelifevirginia.org.