WARREN, Ohio -- Trumbull Memorial Hospital recently made medical history as the first in Trumbull County to offer a technologically advanced, life-saving medical device used by cardiothoracic surgeons to potentially recover heart function of patients with severely damaged hearts.The FDA-approved ventricular assist device, the Abiomed BVS5000, provides temporary support for one or both sides of the heart in circumstances where the heart has failed. Patients at Trumbull Memorial Hospital whose hearts go into cardiogenic shock following an event such as a massive heart attack now have access to these life-saving devices, only previously available at major tertiary facilities, according to Kevin M. Spiegel, chief operating officer.The BVS5000 was the first heart-assist device approved for use in patients who experience a massive unrecoverable heart attack. It is the most widely used mechanical cardiac assist device for patients with a potentially recoverable heart. It is now available in most academic tertiary medical centers throughout the world, Spiegel said. The device performs the function of a heart and was designed to allow a patient's heart to rest and potentially recover, as well as keep a patient alive for a heart transplant, if appropriate."There are times when a heart is so badly damaged that conventional treatment such as bypass surgery or stent placement is not effective," explained Pyongsoo D. Yoon, M.D., director of Cardiovascular Surgery for the Heart Hospital at Forum Health. The device was used for the first time recently at Trumbull Memorial Hospital by cardiothoracic surgeons Yoon and John Cardone, M.D., for an area resident who was referred by an area hospital for emergency cardiac catheterization and surgery after a massive heart attack. After cardiac surgery the heart function improved, but the damage from the massive heart attack was so extensive that the device was placed to help the heart recover and provide a bridge to transplant. "The device is used in extreme cases when conventional treatments have not worked," explained Cardone. "It can be used as a bridge to recovery providing temporary support of the heart function by pumping and circulating blood through the body or serve as a bridge to transplant to stabilize and support a patient for transfer to a regional heart transplant center." The two-chambered Ventricular Assist Device, which provides support to one side of the heart, is inserted by surgeons into the ventricle via a cannula, or thin tube. Placed external to the patient, the device takes over the pumping function of the heart, allowing the blood to continuing reaching vital organs. The blood is rerouted from the heart to the pump and back to the heart through its normal course of flow. "In certain circumstances, for very critically-ill patients with little or no heart function where the chance of survival is extremely low, this technology offers hope with the opportunity to restabilize and potentially recover heart function," said Fadi Naddour, M.D., chief of interventional cardiology at Trumbull Memorial Hospital."