NAPLES, Fla. — A revolutionary "wireless" pacemaker, roughly the size of a grain of rice, has given a Naples man his life back after years of struggling with heart failure.
Fox 4's Eric Lovelace shows us how the innovative surgery works:
David Bollinger suffered from an irregular heartbeat for nearly 20 years and heart failure for the past seven years, making something so fundamental like walking, a difficult challenge.
"I couldn't even get up to go to church, I was so bad I could barely walk," Bollinger said.
His condition was deteriorating rapidly before doctors at Naples Comprehensive Health implanted what the hospital says is the country's first rice-sized pacemaker of its kind.
Dr. Sajan Rao, who has treated Bollinger for over 10 years, said his patient showed advanced symptoms of congestive heart failure along with an electrical disturbance.
"His heart was beating out of sync," Rao said.
Traditional pacemakers use leads, essentially wires, to regulate heartbeat. However, Bollinger's leaky valve and abnormally large heart chambers made conventional treatment impossible.
"Technically we would probably say impossible to get the leads in," Rao said.
The tiny device was placed in both lower chambers of Bollinger's heart to coordinate his heartbeat. Dr. Dinesh Sharma at the NCH Rooney Heart Institute executed the surgery, and he said another aspect of this procedure that's unique, is the fact that the pacemaker goes in both sides of the heart.
"We have one in the right lower chamber and left lower chamber," Dr. Sharma said. "The goal is both lower chambers to beat at same time."
Dr. Sharma explained that traditional pacemakers would have worsened Bollinger's condition.
"When you put these leads through the valve, it can make the valves more leaky, so these are not good options," Sharma said.
Now with his health dramatically improved, Bollinger credits his medical team for his recovery.
"Constantly by my side, watching over me, I couldn't have done it without them," Bollinger said.
