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.

Customer story from Agnes

I have been wearing the Vital Beat shirt and shield since 2019, and I am very satisfied with it. My pacemaker keeps pushing outwards, causing it to lie very close under the skin. A year after my first pacemaker, I got a renewal due to problems with the pacemaker. They immediately made the pocket a little deeper during this procedure, but unfortunately this did not help. After six months, the pacemaker pushed itself out again. This makes the skin around my pacemaker irritated very quickly, especially when using a car seatbelt. In daily life I am a courier at DHL and I spend a lot of time on the road.

Trying to find a solution: from sponge to special pillow

I have tried everything to alleviate this irritation. From a soft cloth between the belt and my body, to a sponge and such a special belt cushion. It worked a bit, but this was still problematic every time getting in and out. Of course, I wanted to keep wearing my belt safely. I struggled with this for about two years.

Vital Beat’s giveaway

After those two years I read a piece about a shirt with a shield, in retrospect this was probably from Vital Beat. I had a bit of a hard time seeing the perks of this product, isn’t that uncomfortable and that thing is way too hard, isn’t it? And how does one wash it, that’s going to break right? Not much later, with this article still in my mind, I saw a giveaway from Vital Beat on the website of the Dutch Heart Foundation. I didn’t hesitate for a moment to participate; this would be a great opportunity to try it out anyway. I wrote a piece explaining why I should win. Interestingly enough, there were even other people who said that if they would win, they would give their prize to me. But surely enough, I won!

Some minor adjustments

After a few days I received the shirt neatly packaged, after which I immediately started wearing it. I was not completely satisfied right away. I did have protection against the car seatbelt, but when I bent down or carried a package, the shield always hit my neck. Vital Beat contacted me after a while about the satisfaction, to which I replied with my experiences. No problem, they said, we’ll just adjust the pocket so that the shield fits better. I took a picture of how the shield would fit better and after a short time the renewed shirt came back. Perfect!

My experiences with Vital Beat

After two years of regular wear, I am still very satisfied and also share this with my fellow device carriers if they have problems with sports or work. I just wear the shirt under my other clothes and wash it by hand so that I can enjoy it for a long time. I would really recommend the product to everyone. The shield is large enough for protection if you would, for example, play ball sports. The impact would then be distributed over the shield and not directly hit your pacemaker or ICD. The shirt is made of a wonderfully fitting fabric that allows sweat to pass through and dries quickly after washing. Because it changed a lot in my work, my life is a lot nicer! Driving my car is my hobby after all.

In the segment Customer Story we will share the experiences and stories of our customers. This blog is about Margo, an ICD carrier with a passion for riding her bike. We asked her a few questions.

How long have you been a device carrier?

I have been the proud owner of an ICD since November 2018, after having 7 cardiac arrests out of nowhere. On examination, it appeared that I have idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. This is a genetic heart defect consisting of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias that can result in cardiac arrest.

How did getting the device affect your life?

Before I got it I had never heard of an ICD, but of course I had no other choice. In the beginning I had to get used to it and it was a daily thought in my head. Fortunately, I have now been able to find peace with the situation.

Has much changed since you got your ICD?

Because of covid-19 I came to work from home full-time. This turned out to be a perfect situation for me, and I hope that I can continue to work from home. The company I work for has moved and that means I have to drive considerably more miles. This means extra time spent in the car and I find that a pretty scary thing. Imagine if the ICD has to do its job during a car ride…I don’t want to think about it!

In terms of daily activities, it took some getting used to at first, but luckily I’m used to it now. I no longer think about having an ICD every day. Fortunately, the device hasn’t had to intervene yet, but I find the thought quite daunting. What do you feel? What can you expect? Will you be conscious again soon?

I also founded a Facebook group with fellow carriers of the DPP6-gen. Here we exchange information and tips and we can support each other. To stay fit, I try to walk every day during my lunch break. I use the ‘detours app’, or in Dutch: Ommetje (Click here to view the app).

How did you find Vital Beat?

I had already read some positive reports about the Vital Beat shirt and shield and a fellow carrier drew my attention to the convenience of the shirt with protection. I use my protective shirt for motorcycle riding. After the rehabilitation process, I was able to pick up my life again.
Riding a motorcycle is one of the things that goes with it. The fear was there anyway, and because of that fear I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I used to. That is why I went looking for a protection that protects my ICD in the event of a fall.

What would you like to pass on to other device carriers?

Seize the day. Enjoy everything. It could be over before you know it!

In the segment Customer Story we will share the experiences and stories of our customers. Our second blog is about Thomas, a 60-year old Paramedic from Sweden. He received his pacemaker in January of 2021.

Did getting the device affect your life?

I feel much better now. My medical issues, like the chest pressure and the episodes of shortness of breath, have disappeared. Therefore I feel more alert and fit now. On the operation table when they connected the leads to the pacemaker, I felt the change immediately. 

What’s the feeling that you get when they attach the battery to you?

Well, I had palpitations for many years. It became natural for me and didn’t think of it. When I looked at my ECG it was episodes of 50% blocked heart beats.
I was running the day before, and when my body needed 150 beats per minute uphill, it got only 75. That explains the chest pressure. This immediately disappeared when they connected the pacemaker.

Did you feel any restrictions when you got your pacemaker?

They gave me restrictions that during the first to two weeks up to two months, I wasn’t allowed to raise my left arm above my shoulder. But I also got some stretching exercises to do from day one to prevent a frozen shoulder. The first days I was a little bit sore at the scar, but that only lasted for two or three days. I took some normal painkillers and soon I could do the stretching exercises again. On day three I took a slow run on the treadmill. And after a week I started with light weight exercises. After two weeks I was back at my work as a paramedic. I have had a very easy journey.

There are definitely people that have had a much worse experience and it has taken them like half a year or so to recover from it.
It was an easy journey for me, but we are all the different and it’s important to listen to your body. Some have other medical issues which impacts their rehabilitation.

What products do you have, and are those enough for you to feel more comfortable?

At first I wore the sports shield too, currently I am just using the standard shield. I have no issues with the pacemaker area right now, because of wearing Vital Beat when I work or when I do activities. I like the outdoor life, being in beautiful scenery and wilderness –doing different activities there. Mostly running, trail-running with backpack. But also hiking, snowshoes, skiing and kayaking. To be prepared for my job I do some weight training too. So, when there is something that creates pressure on the pacemaker area or there can be an accidental impact,I have Vital Beat protection.

How did you find Vital Beat?

There’s a Facebook group called the Pacemaker Support Group, so I found out about Vital Beat and your product there. I told them about my ice hockey game goalkeeper protection and there was a woman in the U.S. that told me about Vital Beat. I then Googled about you and found it. It’s like an extra skin with protection. It’s very good and I’m very satisfied with it.

Have you told other people about us?

Yes, I’ve told other pacemaker wearers which I met through my work. I’ve also told the pacemaker technicians and they hadn’t heard about Vital Beat. They became very interested.

Is there any advice you would like to give to other device carriers?

The pacemaker gives most of us a better life, therefore it is a very good friend. The pacemaker in itself doesn’t have a negative influence on your life. You can live your life as before receiving a device. If you don’t have any other medical issues, you can live a fully active lifestyle with a pacemaker. I was concerned in the beginning about how should protect the implant area. As a pacemaker carrier you don’t have to think about the sensitivity of the area, the discomfort from pressure or accidental impact because there are good products on the market. Vital Beat is one of them.

Do you have any feedback for us about the product or anything?

As I said, I’m very satisfied with your product. It does its work very well. I can live like before I got my pacemaker, and the pacemaker has helped me with my medical issues. I have a better cardio performance now, because the pacemaker fixed the bad heart rhythm.

Customer story: Gerda

In the segment Customer Story we will share the experiences and stories of our customers. This first blog is about Gerda, a 58-year old working mom of two grown up daughters and carrier of an CRT-D. Nowadays she is committed to helping other women who also had a heart attack. We asked her a few questions.

How long have you been a device carrier?

I have had my CRT-D since January 2019 after having a heart attack in 2013 and another one in 2017.

In what way did receiving the CRT-D have an influence on your life?

The moment my cardiologist told me that due to changed standards I was eligible for an ICD, back in fall 2018, I was already focused on AED’s (automated external defibrillators) and knew exactly where to find them. The knowledge that I could have a arrhythmia that could possibly make my heart stop really hit me hard.

The night before receiving my ICD I was told that a third wire would be added to ensure the damaged part of my heart would move correctly in time with the other side. I really had no time to think about the news and let it sink in.

Did much change now that you have the CRT-D?

The positive thing about my CRT-D is of course that my heart rhythm and heart function have improved. It did take some awareness that I have something in my body that supports my heart. I sometimes joke around with the term ‘bionic woman’ since I literally can’t just ‘drop dead’. Mortality in general really was a theme that I become more conscious of.

In the beginning I of course couldn’t drive my car and I was limited in my movements due to the healing of the wound. Now I’m still a bit limited since the device is located on my left chest muscle.

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

I met Hilke (owner of Vital Beat) at a meeting where we were both present as entrepreneurs. When she told me about what Vital Beat did I was very intrigued. I love hiking, but wearing a backpack was quite uncomfortable because of my device. I had made some make-shift solutions in the past, for example with a small towel, but nothing really worked. The materials Vital Beat uses are a way better solution.

What would you like to say to other device carriers?

If you are anxious to do what you would normally love to do, Vital Beat offers a really nice solution. Mainly regarding safety for example for mountain bikers and cyclists when they fall, but also regarding comfort like in my case with a backpack. This will enable you to do what you always liked to do and you won’t have to let your device limit you.

Gerda turned her experiences into a career. Through her coaching company she helps women who just like her suffered from a heart attack. Want to read more or get in contact with Gerda? Check out https://www.jebentmeerdanwatjehebt.nl/ (Dutch spoken only)