AVEIR™ VR Leadless Pacemaker (LP) recipient Chelsey is living her best life with confidence, peace of mind, and hope for the future, knowing AVEIR VR LP will be the safety net that catches her when she needs it.
Young, vibrant, and active – if you saw Chelsey working out at the gym, riding her Peloton, or out for a run, you would never imagine that she has struggled with a rare heart condition throughout her life, but her cardiac journey has been a long one.
When she was just 17 years old, she received a diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and received a defibrillator. After that diagnosis, her twin sister was evaluated and found to have the same condition. Eventually, Chelsey’s condition worsened, and she ended up receiving a heart transplant.
She managed well with this course of treatment for several years, until eventually, she started to experience episodes where her heart rate would drop or stop.
“At home I started feeling dizzy and sweaty,” she said. She could feel her heart rate dropping.
She needed a pacemaker to help regulate her heart rhythm. That’s something Chelsey knows something about – you see, Chelsey is an Abbott employee (and so is her sister). She knew about AVEIR VR LP and all of the advantages it offered over traditional transvenous pacemakers, so she decided to wait for it to become available.
Her patience paid off. Chelsey was the first U.S. patient implanted with AVEIR VR LP. She knew AVEIR VR LP’s leadless design was the ideal solution for her active lifestyle.
The leads that come along with traditional pacemakers necessitate arm restrictions and wires in the heart that could potentially result in fractured wires. Because AVEIR VR LP is leadless, there are no arm restrictions, so it was an ideal choice for a young and active person like Chelsey, who was back in the gym just a few days after her implant.
AVEIR VR LP got her back to the gym and back to life - it’s her safety net.
“It catches me when I need it,” she explains. That peace of mind follows her from the gym, through her day-to-day activities, to work. “I don’t have to worry about my heart stopping in the middle of the night or feeling like I’m going to pass out. It’s there when I need it. It’s my safety net.”
Designed for long-term retrieval and equipped with a long-lasting battery, AVEIR VR LP is a strategic choice for young patients like Chelsey, who may require more interventions later in life. Long battery life may help reduce the number of surgical procedures for Chelsey in the future.
AVEIR VR LP is designed for long-term retrieval, so, eventually, later in her life, it does not need to remain in Chelsey's body should another solution or device become needed or available. Also, AVEIR VR LP is designed to provide an upgradeable platform to later support a dual chamber pacemaker system.*
Hear more from Chelsey about her experience and watch her story here.
*AVEIR DR Dual Chamber Leadless Pacemaker System is commercially approved for use only in the U.S. Market at this time.
1. Reddy V, Exner D, Doshi R, et al. Primary Results on Safety and Efficacy From the LEADLESS II–Phase 2 Worldwide Clinical Trial. J Am Coll Cardiol EP. 2022 Jan, 8 (1) 115–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.11.002
MAT-2212651 v5.0 | Item is approved for US use only
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