27-year-old mother of three, Heather McIntyre from Scotland, who “died” twice when her heart stopped beating in theatre, was saved by a heart pump containing parts designed by NASA.

McIntyre, who comes from Airdrie in Lanarkshire, was rushed to the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank after suffering heart failure in July 2010, just five months after giving birth.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Saleem Haj-Yahia massaged her heart while implanting a pump made with tiny motors designed by scientists at the American space agency NASA, reported The Scotsman on Monday.

Doctors told McIntyre’s family that her heart had stopped after all her major organs failed and that she had died “a couple of times” on the operating table.

The heart pump is called a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) and the tiny NASA-designed motors keep the blood pumping around the body.

Even with the VAD, doctors estimated McIntyre had a 5% chance of surviving.

However, as the weeks went on, she rallied, and her heart and other organs began slowly to recover.

Sadly, she lost her left leg, which surgeons had to amputate because of damage resulting from a blood clot caused by the heart failure last July.

McIntyre is now recovering at home and says the VAD saved her life.

She said when she arrived at the hospital she had multiple organ failure, her heart, liver and kidneys were shutting down.

“I don’t remember much of what happened at the time, but there is no doubt that the VAD saved my life as it allowed my own heart to rest and to fully recover”, she told The Scotsman.

Haj-Yahia confirmed that all her organs, liver, kidneys, lungs and heart had failed and she needed a “very quick resuscitation” which meant getting her to theatre, opening her chest and massaging her heart while implanting the VAD.

McIntyre is optimistic about the future, despite the loss of her leg:

“I’ve got a prosthetic leg. I’m home with my kids. I’m not going to sit in the house and cry because I’ve lost my leg or I’ve got scars,” she said.

She thanked the staff at the Scottish National Advanced Heart Failure Service, whose “care and dedication” was “superb”.

In the meantime the Scottish government has launched a new strategy for dealing with heart failure patients at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital. The aim is to improve access to experts, increase the number of heart transplants and improve the use of the VAD, reports the BBC.

McIntyre said she was “delighted that other people will have the same opportunity as me as part of this new strategy”.

The Golden Jubilee hospital is one of a few hospitals in the UK to use VADs.

There are several types of VAD, including the portable one used in McIntyre’s case.

It is usually used as a temporary circulation pump while the patient waits for a heart transplant, but for a small number of patients their own heart recovers after a short rest.

If it is shown to be clinically effective, it could actually become a “destination” therapy for patients who can’t have a transplant.

Dr Mark Petrie, a consultant cardiologist at the Golden Jubilee, said the VAD is a “huge benefit” for patients, because before it came along they were limited to drugs and pacemakers, but now, the VAD actually takes over the function of the heart and drives blood around the body.

Sources: The Scotsman, BBC News.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD