Natascha (43) was recently surprised with good news. She participated in a giveaway from Hartpatiënten Nederland and was one of the lucky ones to win a Vital Beat protection shirt won. Reason enough for an interview: why did she participate and how does she like the shirt?

Many wearers of pacemakers, ICDs and S-ICDs struggle with this: how do you deal with a medical device in your body? What can you do and for which activities is it wise to be more careful? Vital Beat responds to that need for answers, certainty and reassurance. The company focuses entirely on the development of protective shirts for people with a pacemaker, ICD or S-ICD. These shirts have a custom-made ‘shield’, or a protective pad that is slid into the shirt where the medical device is located with the wearer. The shield is made of the shock-absorbing material D3O. This material is also used in the development of motorcycle suits, protective equipment for stuntmen and helmets for military personnel. The shield in the Vital Beat protection shirts protects against pressure, for example from a seat belt, and against hard blows during, for example, practicing sports.

No pain

Natascha is happy with her protection shirt. “I can cuddle with the kids again without it hurting! Somehow they always aim for my left, as if they sense that my heart is there. Because my ICD is there, it was always painful. The Vital Beat shirt is therefore a real revelation for me. I now feel really protected while cuddling and it feels much more comfortable. The pressure is distributed more evenly and I suffer much less.”

Happiness

Natascha suffered a severe heart attack when she was only 18 years old, caused by a blood clotting disease that she was not aware of at the time. Her heart functioned less than fifty percent after that. School and work was no longer an option for her. “But by living my life as ‘normally’ as possible, I lived with my limitations as best I could. It was tough and I suffered a lot from side effects and limitations, but I am a go-getter.” Odekerken has had an ICD for about four years because her heart rhythm problems have worsened over the years. Her heart function is now at 34%. “The moment I was told I had to have an ICD, I found it very intense. I was confronted with the facts for a moment: it was a confirmation of decline. Fortunately, it still hasn’t gone off, but it’s nice to be different.” Due to her reduced heart function, Odekerken was never able to have children, but she and her partner are foster parents of two beautiful children aged 12 and 8. “I get a lot of happiness from that. So cuddling with them is also the best thing there is, but it was difficult that I always felt my ICD. I had never heard of protection shirts before, so when I read about it in the magazine I was pleasantly surprised! My ICD is quite big: it’s the size of a hand and it sticks out, so it always bothers me. That’s why this shirt is such a godsend. I’m surprised I’ve never seen or heard anything about this. I think this means of protection should be more widely known and will certainly share my experiences with those around me.”

This article was previously published in HPNL Magazine. Read the original article here

Mika (8) was recently surprised with good news. He participated in a giveaway from Hartpatiënten Nederland and was one of the lucky ones who won a Vital Beat protection shirt. Reason enough for an interview: why did he participate and how does he like the shirt?

Many wearers of pacemakers, ICDs and S-ICDs struggle with this: how do you deal with a medical device in your body? What can you do and for which activities is it wise to be more careful? Vital Beat responds to that need for answers, certainty and reassurance. The company focuses entirely on the development of protective shirts for people with a pacemaker, ICD or S-ICD. These shirts have a custom-made ‘shield’, or a protective pad that is slid into the shirt where the medical device is located with the wearer. The shield is made of the shock-absorbing material D3O. This material is also used in the development of motorcycle suits, protective equipment for stuntmen and helmets for military personnel. The shield in the Vital Beat protection shirts protects against pressure, for example from a seat belt, and against hard blows during, for example, practicing sports.

Kawasaki disease

8-year-old Mika is one of the lucky ones who recently received a custom-made protective shirt from Vital Beat. Mika has had a pacemaker since he was three, but to say that you notice something? No, Mika is a boy like any other who happily explores the world and prefers to play a nice game of football and play outside. Fortunately, with the right protection, this is possible. When Mika was born, nothing was wrong. He was a healthy baby and the pre-pregnancy ultrasounds showed nothing to worry about. However, it turned out to be wrong three months later. Mika developed a high fever and suddenly had a red rash all over his body. “Many diseases such as measles could be ruled out in the hospital,” says his mother Annemieke Fluit. “In the end, the doctors ended up with Kawasaki disease. This is a rare disease that occurs mainly in young children and causes inflammation of the blood vessels. With Mika, the arteries around the heart were inflamed.”

AV Block

Mika was able to leave the hospital after a while, but was left with a second-degree AV block due to the inflammation in his body. An AV block causes a disturbance in the electrical function around the heart, slowing the heart rhythm. Because Mika was not yet a year old at the time, he was allowed to stay away from the hospital for a year. A baby’s heart does not have to work so hard that cardiac arrhythmias could cause serious problems. Fluit: “But when we came back after that year, the AV block turned out to be worse. We were told that a pacemaker would be unavoidable in the future.”

Play football

Since the age of three, Mika has had a pacemaker in the abdominal cavity, below the sternum. Although it is a major intervention for such a young child, his mother was amazed by his resilience. “After 3 days he jumped off his bed again, while I thought: ‘Be careful!’. It says a lot about how quickly children want to do their thing again, and how flexible they are.” Mika now lives his life like everyone else, Fluit continues: “He’s a wonderful kid. He plays football and enjoys playing outside. When playing sports or playing, he always needs protection. The wires of the pacemaker, which lie on the sternum, are particularly vulnerable. With the right protection, he is not allowed to kick box, but with football he can just keep goal or bump into someone else without anything wrong. Until now we used a protective vest that was not very practical in use. That’s why my mother was immediately enthusiastic when she saw the Vital Beat giveaway in HPNLmagazine. “Let’s just try it for our grandson,” she thought. And she won! Via Zoom we went through the correct sizes together with Vital Beat and a week later we already received the shirt. He has now played his first football match of 2022 with the protective shirt, and won 6-3 too!”

This article has originally been released in HPNL Magazine. Read the original article here

In the Customer Story segment we share the experiences and stories of our customers.

This blog is about Timo, a young S-ICD wearer who likes to play basketball and takes this sport very serious. 

What was the period immediately after your operation like? Were you able to get back to basketball quickly?

Immediately after the operation I had a short rehabilitation period due to a collapsed lung, but otherwise there was little to no rehabilitation or anything like that. I was able to continue pretty quickly as I was used to, paying attention to how far I could go. After a month I had another exercise test to see how the S-ICD responded to exercise and fluctuations in the heart rate, after which I was given the green light to simply resume my sport.

I started again fairly quickly with half training sessions, but I only started playing matches again and started training fully after three months. This took some time because the operation and the collapsed lung both had quite an impact on my condition.

How did getting your S-ICD affect your life?

It had quite an impact. I was only 17 when I had the operation, and a collapsed lung on top of that. In the beginning I also had trouble accepting the ‘box’ in my body.

Now that we’ve been a while, not much has really changed, it doesn’t bother me much myself. People are still worried about me, sometimes I find this a bit annoying. In appearance, the S-ICD is quite well hidden under my arm and few people actually notice it. I myself don’t care much that the device is there, for example I’ve never been ashamed of it.

My physical fitness condition is now good again, although not yet at the level it was before the operation. The basketball itself is affected by having the S-ICD, in particular I just became a lot more careful than before. Especially when I just got the S-ICD and still had to get used to it.

In the segment Customer Story we share the experiences and stories of our customers. This blog is about Philip, a pacemaker carrier who practices competitive sailing. We asked him a few questions about his passions and the way receiving his device impacted his life.

In the segment Customer Story we share the experiences and stories of our customers. This blog is about Jellis. Despite wearing an ICD, he fully enjoys his sports and his life. We asked him a few questions about his passions and how getting his device affected his life.

Jellis also has his own website called ‘The Heart Warrior Project’ where he creates a platform of support for fellow survivors. He recently wrote a blogpost about Vital Beat on his website, which you can find here.

Has much changed since you got your ICD?

Of all the changes that surviving a cardiac arrest has brought, living with an ICD is ultimately the least impactful. It is mainly the medication and the side effects, living with heart disease and the consequences on my body (such as less energy) that are tough.

In terms of work, as a therapist, not much has changed in my work situation. It has mainly given me much deeper insights about life, suffering, and death. I try to use those insights in a positive way in my work as much as possible.

Sports are fine. Climbing goes well, although there are some routes where I have to keep my arm in a different position because otherwise the ICD is in the way.

When I go swimming or to the sauna I sometimes get strange looks from people since they have not seen an ICD very often or even never. At first it was difficult when people stared at my ICD, but now I’m more accepting of those stares. I now know that the main reason people stare is because they’ve never seen it and wonder what it is and why I have this.

We are of course talking to you as a customer of Vital Beat. How did you find us?

I myself am a person who is very solution-oriented. When I was told the list of sports that I could no longer do because of the ICD, I immediately started looking for a solution. That’s how I came across the Vital Beat website.