My Life at 9200 rpm's: What do LVADs do when the power goes out?

As everyone knows who has read a few of my blog posts, LVADs are electrically powered:  batteries by day and a power module transformer by night.  Hurricane Sandy caused problems for LVADs and countless others in New York and New Jersey who depend on a reliable source of electricity for survival:  kidney dialysis,  those who rely on oxygen generators, and rocking bed ventilators among others.

One of my LVAD brothers has a blog called From The Bottom of My LVAD and he linked to a recent news story about a New York man who has had an LVAD for less than a year.  The man, ironically a former employee of an electric power company, could not find a source of power to recharge his LVAD batteries. 

A fire station turned him away. A hospital ER reportedly turned him away. What were they thinking?  The fire fighters were said to be polite but adamant:  no power for you Mr. LVAD.  Go to a shelter and plug in.   

As for the hospital, its protocol apparently required that any person seeking service needs a physical exam.  The LVAD owner did not need a physical exam, and reportedly could not afford one.  He did not want to receive medical attention.  He wanted to charge his batteries.  But he was on his own.

Of course, all of us are on our own.  But if a hospital has power and a fire house has power, don't you think an exception could be made to permit a person in need to plug in his battery charger?

In my view, there is no excuse for such a refusal.  Admittedly, I have an LVAD and a bias in favor of continued life. It's not as though everyone will be lining up outside the fire house or ER to plug in a battery charger.

In the end, Carol and Lou Cardinali, the LVAD and his caregiver, were able to use a portable generator offered by a neighbor.  I can only imagine being in the Cardinalis situation.  Our electric supply company has a program that gives priority to those who have life sustaining medical equipment.  Whether the program is honored is anyone's guess.  On Long Island, during Sandy, a similar program apparently failed.  It's a jungle out there, right?

There were some comments accompanying the Newsday newspaper story, in which some readers heaped blame on the fire station and hospital and others blamed the Cardinalis themselves for not being more self reliant.  Go buy a generator for such emergencies, they were told.  You should know that in hurricanes, there are power outages.  Plan ahead.  Good advice with hindsight.

A better suggestion from a couple of readers was to buy a device that would allow the Cardinalis to plug the LVAD battery charger into their car to recharge the batteries.  So as long as the Cardinalis had gasoline (problematic in a Sandy and similar storms), they would have power.

I cannot tell from the photo accompanying the article on the Cardinalis dilemma which type device he has.  I do not recognize the manufacturer of the LVAD.  I know the battery charger was not like my Thoratec charger.  We are issued a charger and four pairs of batteries when discharged from the hospital.


Mine has four slots to recharge four batteries at a time.  I use a pair and have a pair in reserve with two pair in the charger.  Charging takes three or four hours.  In the best circumstances, I might last about 48 to 60 hours on my batteries.  I have a one time use 12 hour emergency battery pack that would extend my viability.

As I sit here, I never contemplated having 60 to 70 hours to live, if I was in a power outage like the one accompanying Hurricane Sandy. But that's a fact.  Fortunately, I would be able to drive somewhere to replenish my batteries.  In bad weather that is problematic.

I might have to find an electric generator and have a plan B as well.