Device to buy time for patients works so well that Dutchwoman has opted out of transplant
Ms Schoeber (left) and her husband Marc Voss (third from left) visiting staff of the National Heart Centre Singapore earlier this month. A team there fitted her with a mechanical heart in 2010 after she had a heart attack. -- ST PHOTO: SEAH KWANG PENG
By Poon Chian Hui
The heart attack came like a bolt out of the blue, striking Dutchwoman Angelique Schoeber soon after the birth of her third child in Singapore.
That was just over a year ago. Ms Schoeber, now 39, was so severely weakened that she had to be fitted with a mechanical heart to keep her alive. Today, the mother-of-three is back on her feet. Recently here again for the first time since that 2010 scare, she even managed to finish a three-hour nature walk with relative ease.
'Another milestone achieved,' said Ms Schoeber with a grin.
She and her husband Marc Voss, 40, were in town recently to visit friends and the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) team that performed the life-saving operation.
Ms Schoeber had in 2010 flown here from Vietnam, where she had been working for nine years, to give birth to her third child.
A week later, she had a heart attack while breastfeeding her newborn daughter in the hotel room.
Mr Voss rushed her to the hospital, where doctors saved her by implanting a mechanical heart.
The device has worked so well that Ms Schoeber decided to take herself off the waiting list for a heart transplant in her home country.
The decision took four to six weeks to reach, said Mr Voss.
The process included consulting a doctor on post-operation risks, and talking to other patients using the device. 'We really won't know if we've made the right move,' he admitted.
The couple, who have two sons aged six and eight, returned to the Netherlands earlier this month.
Heartmate II consists of a pump the size of a D-cell battery implanted inside the body to the left heart chamber, and attached by a tube to an external computer and batteries.
It takes over the heart's function of pumping blood around the body. The computer and batteries are placed outside the body, and attached to a belt strapped around the hip. To date, the longest the device is known to last is seven years.
First used in Singapore in 2009, it was designed to help patients buy time while they wait for a heart transplant.
In total, 18 people have been implanted with the device in Singapore. Ms Schoeber is the sixth patient and only foreigner to have undergone the operation here.
Currently, 15 patients are on the heart transplant waiting list here, 14 of whom are supported by Heartmate II.
Dr C. Sivathasan, co-director of the heart and lung transplant programme at NHCS, said two patients fitted with Heartmate II remain undecided about a transplant.
'They are happy living with the heart pump,' he said.
One is working full-time while the other is a retiree.
The Dutch couple said that adjusting to the device wasn't easy.
Both had to quit their well-paying jobs. Ms Schoeber was a company director while her husband worked in the software industry.
Mr Voss recalled how he could not sleep the first night back in the Netherlands. 'My night was so bad. I woke up many times to check if she was breathing or not,' he said.
To better cope with the situation, the family even lived apart for three months so the couple's parents could help care for Ms Schoeber and the children.
Mr Voss only recently returned to work at a computer software firm in Holland, while Ms Schoeber has decided not to go back to work. She now regards the daily change of batteries for the heart device as 'part of normal life', as is covering it with cling-wrap before a shower since the device cannot get soaked.
She has physiotherapy sessions twice weekly and exercises by walking and cycling, with an occasional light game of tennis.
Such lifestyle changes can have their funny moments. Ms Schoeber recalled: 'While we were here recently, a shopkeeper in Chinatown asked, 'Are you wearing a gun?''
On a more serious note, the couple said the family has grown closer after the life-changing event.
Said Mr Voss: 'The children now spend more time with their grandparents, since we are back in the same country.'
chpoon@sph.com.sg