The gift of life
A medical device manufacturer donated a novel heart surgery device to the U. The gift keeps on giving.
A medical device manufacturer donated a novel heart surgery device to the U. The gift keeps on giving.
Esther Johannessohn knows Chihuahuas.
Breeding the dogs is a family affair and the puppies are raised in her home in Lengby, Minn. So when she was holding 3-week-old Spunky, she knew something was not right. She could feel Spunky’s heart thumping under her fingers.
“I knew that wasn’t normal, I had a really bad feeling about it,” Johannessohn remembers.
Spunky nursed and played with her siblings and eventually ate food. Everything appeared normal, except her heartbeat.
When Stacey Hughes and her family adopted their springerdoodle, Millie, her energy was “off the charts,” but she soon found herself in the same position as the Johannessohns.
Neither Millie nor Spunky had any physical effects, but both were diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), a congenital heart condition in which a blood vessel that normally closes after birth remains open. It’s the most common congenital heart condition in dogs and if left untreated, it’s fatal.
Johannessohn’s veterinarian said the condition may improve, but that was doubtful. She asked her parents if they would like to take Spunky in. They did and immediately became attached.
In Aitkin, Minn., Millie had also quickly become part of her family.
“We have five kids who were all attached, even the 1.5 year old. Our other springerdoodle and her were buddies right away,” Hughes says.
Both Hughes and Johannessohn were told their dogs would need surgery to close the vessel in their hearts. Both were told to go to the University of Minnesota (UMN) Veterinary Medical Center’s (VMC) Lewis Small Animal Hospital.
Little did either of them know that one of the hospital’s cardiology residents, Dr. Joe Herbert, was working on research related to PDA. Even more, he had secured a novel device that would allow cardiologists at the VMC to perform a non-invasive PDA surgery on the smallest of puppies, something that had only recently become possible.
“Traditionally the device most people know of can only be used in dogs that weigh at least 7.5 pounds. That’s a problem when we’re talking about these really small breeds. Some Chihuahuas don’t reach 7.5 pounds when they’re full grown,” Herbert says.
Back in the early 2000s, former UMN faculty member and veterinary cardiologist Dr. Anthony Tobias, co-developed the first-ever non-invasive device to correct PDA. Two decades later, the VMC was the first place in North America to use the most up-to-date tool, the Vet-PDA OccludeR, a piece of equipment donated by a Spanish medical device manufacturer, thanks to the research Herbert and Dr. Chris Stauthammer, a professor of cardiology at CVM who tested Tobias’ first generation device during his own residency, were conducting.
Instead of opening the chest cavity and tying off the blood vessel that way, the novel devices allowed for a non-invasive fix in tiny dogs. The smallest ever operated on was 1.3 pounds—about the same as a loaf of bread.
To do so, the cardiologist feeds a catheter through a vein in the thigh and uses that, and live X-ray images, to close off the valve without a suture. The process leaves only a tiny prick on the dog’s leg. It also has opened the non-invasive surgery to cats.
“We’re not opening the chest and exposing lungs and heart so there is less of a chance of collateral damage to those organs,” Herbert says.
Without the donated device, surgery for each dog would have run well into the thousands of dollars.
“The numbers were so staggering that there was just no hope, it was way more than we could afford,” Johannessohn says.
Like most new medical devices, the retail price of the Vet-PDA Occlude is expensive, but the UMN was in a unique spot to help patients and their owners.
“Because these were donated to us, we could cut $1,000–1,500 off the bill, just by having that device donated,” Herbert says.
After reading Spunky’s case, he made a personal phone call to Johannessohn asking her if she would be interested in having the 4-month-old puppy try a brand new procedure. In June, Spunky was the first patient to undergo a non-invasive PDA surgery at the VMC using the new equipment. Millie followed in September. Today, both girls are happy and healthy.
The equipment isn’t just saving lives in Minnesota. The VMC is training any veterinarian who would like to visit and learn how to use the device.
“They can see how the equipment performs and is used and if they want to take that equipment back to their clinic, they can do that with more confidence,” Herbert says.