Former Vice-President Richard B. Cheney - IMAGE SOURCE: Big 3 News Photo Archives

Former Vice-President Richard B. Cheney, 69, is said to be recovering after doctors at a Virginia hospital recently implanted a battery-operated heart pump device designed to compensate for his badly damaged organ.

“A few weeks ago, it became clear that I was entering a new phase of the disease when I began to experience increasing congestive heart failure,” Cheney said in a statementreleased on Wednesday.

“After a series of recent tests and discussions with my doctors, I decided to take advantage of one of the new technologies available and have a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implanted.”

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the LVAD device is generally used as a “bridge to transplant” for prospective heart transplant patients while they wait for a suitable heart.

“An LVAD can help a weak heart and ‘buy time’ for the patient,” the organization said on its website.

Cheney, who has had heart complications since he was 37, did not indicate in his statement that he was anticipating a full heart transplant.

The pump is placed in the upper part of the abdomen, according to the AHA, and works by pulling blood through a tube from the left ventricle into the device. It then sends the blood into the aorta.

“This effectively helps the weakened ventricle,” the AHA said.

The patient wears external batteries around his upper body; a small tube coming out of the abdominal wall is attached to the pump’s battery and control system.

A 2005 study published in Circulation – Journal of the American Heart Association, provided promising results about the effectiveness of LVADs.

Researchers studied fifteen patients who required LVAD implantation – six of whom recovered well enough to restore their failing hearts.

“After LVAD support, a proportion of patients recover sufficient ventricular function to enable explantation of the device,” the study noted.

The remaining nine patients did not sufficiently improve and required heart transplantation.

A team of doctors at the Carolinas Medical Center recently implanted an LVAD and saved the life of a 21-year old boy suffering from a weakened heart similar to Cheney’s.

“Before 2010, LVADs were implanted into patients as a ‘bridge’ until the patient received a transplant,” according to a July 14 article in the Lincoln Tribune. “Patients now can use the LVADs as a destination therapy tool, and it is possible that the new technology may take the place of heart transplants.”

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