FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Bob Herring says he's lucky to be alive. Last Wednesday, the 68-year-old's heart stopped beating properly.
"Without the LifeVest and my Lord Jesus Christ, I wouldn't be here today," Bob said.
Three years ago, Bob had a defibrillator implanted in his heart to shock his heart if it went into sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).
"SCA is not a heart attack, it's a pure electrical problem," Dr. Fausto Devecchi, an electrophysiologist at Lutheran Hospital , said. "The heart electricity usually flows in an organized manner and produces a nice heart beat. SAC results in a disorganized flow which results in a quivering of the heart and the heart stops beating."
If the defibrillator detects an abnormal rhythm, it would send an electric shock through the heart to get it beating correctly again.
Then last December, Bob didn't feel well. He went to the hospital to discover he had a severe infection. To treat it, his defibrillator had to be removed.
"Infections like to seed on the wires and the antibiotics can't reach the site because there's not enough blood flow to the region," Devecchi explained.
Taking out Bob's defibrillator would have left him unprotected from dying from a SCA event. But, Devecchi had Bob wear a LifeVest, an external, wearable defibrillator.
"I was very skeptical when he told me I should wear a LifeVest. I didn't want to wear it because the defibrillator didn't have to work since it was in," Bob said. "I was so glad they talked me into it."
After several weeks in the hospital, Bob went home on February 29 to continue recovering from the infection. He got home around 4:30 p.m.
"I had a bit of supper and watched the ball game a bit and then told [my wife] I was worn out and was going to take a nap," Bob said as he recounted the night one week ago.
He went to lie down on the couch in the front room. His wife, Jan, was working in the office one room away.
"It was about 10 p.m. and I heard a siren go off. I wondered if it was on the TV and I went to look at what he was watching and the siren was coming from his LifeVest monitor," she recalled.
The LifeVest has electrodes that monitor the heart rhythm. If it detects an abnormal rhythm, it will sound an alarm.
"There was also a voice saying to press the response button, and I had heard that before when the electrodes had come loose. I wondered why he wasn't pressing the response button, because if you press them, it knows you are conscious. I looked at his face and it was just blank, he was totally out of it. Just then, his body jumped and I knew he had gotten a shock treatment," Jan said.
Bob woke up to Jan on the phone with 911, having no idea he almost died in his sleep.
"He opened his eyes and started talking normally. He never heard the siren or heard the voice or felt the shock. He didn't know anything had happened," Jan said.
Paramedics took Bob back to the hospital, just five hours after he got home.
"This is one of those episodes that tell you how important it is to protect the patient continuously," Dr. Devecchi said. "Some sudden death events occur when people are sleeping and there is no way of knowing."
Devecchi said 250,000 people die every year from sudden cardiac arrest. That means every two minutes a life is claimed. Time is everything when an episode happens.
"It takes four to six minutes for a patient to die and every minute lost means a ten to 15 percent less chance of surviving," he said.
The LifeVest can give a life-saving shock within a few seconds of the abnormal heart rhythm starting. One pad on the chest and two on the back release a gel to prevent burns and act as a conduit for the electrical wave sent through the heart.
Most patients wear the LifeVest for a few months while they wait for other treatment options. There is a waiting period after having heart bypass surgery or a stent put in the heart before someone can get a defibrillator implanted. Sometimes people who need a defibrillator get better after a few months.
"Some of these conditions are temporary and we don't want to implant a device when the condition may improve," Devecchi said.
Now, patients can wear the LifeVest during that waiting period.
"A few years ago, we were sending patients home when they weren't a candidate for a defibrillator yet and we had nothing else to offer. We just had to hope and pray that nothing happened. SAC is a random event and we cannot anticipate when it will happen. We can only identify who is at risk," Devecchi said.
Lutheran Hospital started using LifeVest with patients about three years ago. Dr. Devecchi 's had about two dozen patients wear it and five of them were saved by it.
"We don't expect a lot of events with the vest. Some people with defibrillators may not get a shock for four or five years. You only wear the vest for a few months, so we expect to have less events," Devecchi. "It's a great tool. It's piece of mind for the patient and physician and a tool that can save a life."
But, to those five people, the LifeVest was a life insurance policy worth wearing.
Now Bob is back home again, after having a new defibrillator implanted on Monday.
"I'm looking forward to spending more time with my family now and maybe do a little golf later this year," he said.
The father of four, grandfather of six and great-grandfather of three only hopes his story can lead to more people putting their trust in the LifeVest.
"Listen to the doctors and nurses. Without it, I wouldn't be alive," Bob said. "You wear it for the chance of it going off, and when they do, they save your life."