Anyone travel with an LVAD heart pump?

10forty2 wrote:
Mile High..... Kudos to you and yours for choosing to live fully, whatever life you may have! So many choose to lay down and let it happen! Since the LVAD is a battery operated device, your RV power should be fine to charge the batteries. But as stated earlier, I'd verify with the manufacturer. The rep at the hospital should be able to tell you anything you need to know.

Thanks 10forty2! The LVAD runs on batteries during the day, but at night the FDA requires them to be on house power for sleeping (just like they do for portable O2 equipment). The LVAD control plugs directly into house current, and the batteries are charged separately. Power loss causes an alarm and the user has to manually reinstall the batteries for power. The device they are considering actually gives you 15 minutes of power within the control box, but others just stop.

When at home - power goes out, we get up and reinstall batteries. normal condition.

When in the RV, power goes out we don't even know it because it goes to inverter, and eventually generator if voltage gets down to 12v. My original question was compatibility with the system on inverter or generator, and as stated, they are pure sine wave. It may be fine, and if not, I can always defeat the generator and inverter at night and just do the same thing we would at the house - get up and install the batteries. I just need to figure it out up front. (I probably don't want to test it on her, I would be horrified if I burned out the control). I'm actually going to see if an LVAD Rep would put me in contact with the engineering department. Maybe they will even test it with me.