Mason City, IA- People living with a sick or failing heart find their quality of life is suffering. According to the American Heart Association, it can mean shortness of breath and always being tired.
For many, it means retaining fluid. Now a local doctor is telling us about an option to help those with congestive heart failure.
One patient says the procedure is so easy, he just has to lie back and watch a little television. Fred Rodemaker didn't think he'd live to see this day. The New Hampton man recently went to his local doctors when he just couldn't catch his breath.
"I thought I was a goner. They thought so, too."
Fred is a 57-year old heart attack survivor. Once a week, for about eight hours at day, he visits Mercy Medical Center North Iowa. He's always had trouble and retained fluids. But now he say, "This is making a difference in my lifestyle."
Doctors say the number one cause of too much fluid in the body is congestive heart failure. That's where Aquapheresis comes into play. Here's how it works. A catheter goes into the vein of a patient like Fred. It has two different jobs. Bad blood is sucked out and a machine removes all the water and salt from it. The other job, is to put the better blood back in.
Samuel J. Congello, D.O. is the Director of Cardiology at Mercy. He says the whole process means less stress on the kidneys, which means less stress on the heart. And the process is done without medication. Doctor Congello says Aquapheresis is safe and effective. Mercy is just one of three in the entire nation and the only hospital in Iowa, offering outpatient care. Dr. Congello recommends, if you have any kind of swelling or heart problems, to visit your family doctor. If you need this treatment, they can refer you to Mercy.
Fred says it's definitely worth it. "It's painless. And it's improving my quality of life, a lot."
