CINCINNATI — New technology that helps keep hearts pumping is now helping to keep people alive after a heart attack.

What You Need To Know

  • Bill Richards did not know he was in heart failure until he ended up in the emergency room 

  • Doctor's at UC Health hospital helped save his life with new technology, a small tube that helped pump his blood through 

  • Richards is the first patient in Cincinnati to get treatment using the device, and doctor's plan to continue to use it to help

Bill Richards is walking around connected to a machine and tubes. It’s the only thing keeping his heart going after something unexpected happened.

“I had no symptoms other than just the sweating. I didn’t feel anything,” said Richards. 

Night sweats, and later low blood pressure, lead to a trip to the emergency room where he found out he was in full-blown heart failure after his heart stopped.

“When I was in the hospital, I had no clue what was going on because I had so many things on me,” said Richards. 

He had what’s known as a silent heart attack that could’ve killed him, but that’s when Dr. Jennifer Cook and her team stepped in. She’s the director of heart failure and transplants at UC Health hospital in Cincinnati.

She said a small tube, called an RP Flex device, pumps blood through when someone’s in heart failure and they put it in your body through your neck.

“Previously, devices that we had required a patient to have a device in their leg which prevented them from being able to get out of bed. Now they’re able to get out of bed and move around while receiving mechanical support for their right ventricle,” said Cook.

The new device was a part of a clinical trial and was never used here before Richards.

His heart became strong enough to take the device out and put in a different device now to keep his heart going at all times with a little help from technology.

“Now I take every day for every day,” said Richards.