First defibrillator implanted at NMC

This story first appeared in the Nov. 6 edition of the Kansan.

The area’s first cardioverter-defibrillator was successfully implanted in the chest of a Newton patient threatened with sudden cardiac arrest.

The procedure was performed Aug. 26 at Newton Medical Center by cardiologist Saad Farhat, M.D.

Not long ago, only massive electrical jolts by an emergency team’s defibrillator saved people whose hearts went into ventricular fibrillation — a lethally fast heartbeat.

Today, a simple procedure allows an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placed in the patient’s chest to monitor and prevent sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation, according to literature provided by Medtronic, manufacturer of the device.

Implantation of the defibrillator takes only about one hour and sometimes can be performed on an outpatient basis.

A physician injects local anesthesia and makes an incision about four inches long in the upper chest. The defibrillator, which is about the size of a poker chip, is inserted as the leads are maneuvered through a vein into the heart.

“I told the patient ‘You now have your own paramedic with you wherever you go,’” Farhat said.

Trained extensively in Florida and Texas to develop this implant procedure, Farhat is affiliated with hospitals in Wichita and Newton.

He is one of the participating partners in the newly developed Newton Cardiac Services that is building this area’s first catheterization lab on the NMC campus.

Defibrillators will effectively guard against sudden cardiac arrest for five to seven years, when the battery needs replacing, depending on the model of the device and individual patient use.

For more information about the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, contact Farhat at Advanced Cardiac Care of Kansas at 283-9444.