Anyone travel with an LVAD heart pump?

[Mile_High]

Anyone travel with an LVAD heart pump? Looks like we may be facing that and I'm curious if anyone had issues with it operating on inverter or generator?

[wallynm]

Can not speak to a LAVD but can speak to a lithium ion batteries as I use an oxygen concentrator. We run the concentrator on the inverter on the road . At night we use a 2000 watt Honda generator to power things as it is quieter. We have run it over night using the on board 8K Power Tech generator but prefer the Honda. Go for it as life is for living. I ski with a bottle attached to a back pack.

[hostage]

coolmom42 wrote:
IMHO a person on a LVAD needs to stay home close to medical care.

your absolutely correct;;

[Mile_High]

krivanj wrote:
Good luck, my bil is very glad he received the glad. I think he would be happy to talk to you or your wife about it if you had that interest.

That is a very nice offer and I will let her know. Two gals that volunteer after having it installed have come into the hospital to talk to her in the last few days and it really helps overcome the shock of the thought.

[krivanj]

Good luck, my bil is very glad he received the glad. I think he would be happy to talk to you or your wife about it if you had that interest.

[Mile_High]

Great suggestion on getting the output checked on the power. I knew the generator could be adjusted, didn't know the inverter could. I know someone that adjusted the throttle on their generator to get the correct output, but my 8000K is variable speed rather than fixed throttle so I better have someone do it that knows what they are doing.

KrivanJ, that is great about your brother in law, and as we go through this I will try to learn more details on the travel routing. I know for the most part, if she travels outside the transplant response zone she is temporarily off the list until she returns. Those trips will be pretty limited because of the trade off, but we have a ton of local State Parks within the zone that she also loves to spend time at, even if its nothing more than reading a book looking out over the lake.

[Dennis12]

coolmom42,
If this was you would you just stop living? Life is too short for that. Do your homework on getting your answers from a professional and have a good time.

[krivanj]

My brother in law has a LVAD and if he travels, Mayo Clinic will preview his route and make sure that there is at least one emergency service unit within so many miles of anywhere he goes, within reason. He grew up in Michigan UP but they cannot supply this as it is too rural so he cannot go there.
He is on the heart transplant list, and thinks the LVAD is wonderful as he would not be alive without it. He has been working out and is really in good shape since the pump was installed in October. He is 58 but wrecked his heart in an auto accident when he was 32. It steadily declined until this was necessary last year.

[rgatijnet1]

Mile High wrote:
Good point on the conditioned power, I didn't think of that. Both the Magnum inverter and generator are pure sine wave so I should be able to ask the LVAD manufacturer.

It might also be a good idea to have both the inverter and generator checked for proper output. Both can be adjusted to insure that the output is optimal. On a generator, the RPM and governor is adjustable to proper output voltage and that it is at 60 cycles. The inverter can also be adjusted for the correct output voltage and frequency.

[Mile_High]

Good point on the conditioned power, I didn't think of that. Both the Magnum inverter and generator are pure sine wave so I should be able to ask the LVAD manufacturer.

The device will have 6 batteries, each pair offering 17 hrs of service, however during sleep the device is required to be plugged in to house AC directly, as are many portable medical devices (FDA). During a power loss, an alarm sounds and the unit itself has 15 minutes of power to allow you to go back to battery pack. However on the MH, we would instantly go to inverter or eventually generator automatically so I was curious if anyone had issues with compatibility. I read where some Fisher-Paykel dishwashers in MH would not function on generator.

I appreciate the medical concerns, but her LVAD is being installed to improve quality of life as she waits for a transplant, and travel is highly encouraged. The devices are TSA approved, but she far prefers the motorhome for travel.

[coolmom42]

IMHO a person on a LVAD needs to stay home close to medical care.

[johnsonbert]

No experiende with that, but on a similar note, we did home hemodialysis while traveling in the coach for a year and a half before getting a kidney transplant. The unit would work on shore power or the pure sine wave inverter until we could start the generator. We always kept the invertor on and the switchover was fast enough.We also used just the generator on a couple of occasions. The equipment supplier had this all checked out in advance. Hope it works out for you. Happy trails Bert

[msmith1199]

I had no idea what an LVAD was so I looked it up. That is quite the device and based on what I read only used for people in rather bad shape. Not going to ask any personal questions, but I'd be more concerned about the travel itself for that person versus the device. But having said that, looks like it operates off rechargeable batteries that are in an external pack. So the device itself isn't powered by the generator, just the batteries are charged. Doesn't seem like that would be much of a problem, but I think I'd want a couple of spare battery packs just in case.

[Lwiddis]

Here's some tips from St. Jude....https://www.sjm.com/en/patients/heart-failure/living-with-your-device/device-battery?clset=af584191-45c9-4201-8740-5409f4cf8bdd%3ab20716c1-c2a6-4e4c-844b-d0dd6899eb3a

[Lwiddis]

I'm surprised you didn't see the LVAD fact sheet on line from Thoratec. Lots of other information too. The unit's batteries last up to 12 hours. So if you have extra batteries and you can recharge the batteries...

[2oldman]

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