New device allows Erie-area afib patient to stop taking blood thinners
Jacob Sax faced a terrible choice earlier this year after he was diagnosed with microbleeding in his brain.
Sax, 84, could stop taking the blood-thinning medication he was first prescribed seven years ago after being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm that causes blood clots. However, doing so would greatly increase the longtime Greene Township resident's risk of a stroke.
Or Sax could continue taking the blood thinners and suffer more life-threatening brain bleeding.
"I was upset," Sax said. "I didn't like either of those choices."
Neither did Sax's daughter, Jeannine Thompson, who oversees his health care. So Thompson went online and learned about a device that is implanted inside the hearts of A-fib patients and catches the clots that form before they can travel into the bloodstream and cause strokes.
Thompson discussed the device, called a Watchman, with Saint Vincent Hospital cardiologist Orestis Pappas, M.D. But patients who have a Watchman implanted still need to take blood thinners for a period of time, which Pappas didn't want for Sax.
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"But there was another device, the Amulet, that was recently approved by the Food & Drug Administration," Pappas said. "The patient can come off blood thinners immediately. That was what we wanted."
On April 6, Pappas and his team at Saint Vincent inserted an Amulet device with a catheter through Sax's femoral artery in his groin and into the left upper chamber of his heart. That's the chamber where blood clots often form in A-fib patients because their upper heart chambers don't contract and eject blood properly.
The Amulet doesn't restore Sax's heart to normal rhythm, but catches any blood clots before they reach his bloodstream — greatly reducing his risk of stroke.
"Eventually the body grows a thin layer of tissue over the surface of the amulet," Pappas said. "It should last for the rest of Jacob's life."
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Doctor: Amulet is 'terrific layer of protection'
Not all A-fib patients need a device like the Amulet, Pappas said. Blood thinners do a great job of reducing the risk of stroke and allowing people to live active lives.
But for those, like Sax, who experience brain bleeding or other issues that would force them to go off the medication and risk a stroke, the Amulet is a terrific layer of protection, Pappas said.
Sax was the first Saint Vincent patient to receive the Amulet. Since then, Pappas has implanted about 10 more devices.
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All the patients are doing well, including Sax, who now lives at Saint Mary's at Asbury Ridge with his wife, Beverly. He will soon undergo hip replacement surgery, which had not been a possibility earlier because he would have needed to go off the blood thinners temporarily, and doctors thought his risk of stroke was too great.
"I'm really relieved that there was something out there to help extend my life," Sax said. "I feel good."
Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Amulet device allows Erie-area man with afib to halt blood thinners
