A battery pack strapped to Jimmy Murphy’s waist provides power to the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implanted in his chest to keep his heart pumping blood.Read more
Getting the heart in the right place
Jimmy Murphy waters his garden by moonlight as dawn glows behind his Hixson neighbors’ rooftops, the horizon just bright enough for him to detect the crimson of his roses, golden daylilies, purple clematis, magenta mandevilla, pale blue pansies and ivory columbine.
He enjoys the marigolds’ astringent scent and the honeysuckle’s faint spice. His old garden at his Soddy-Daisy home was bigger, but his doctors warned him that he must move closer to their care, so he built a new blossom-filled landscape in this small yard.
Strapped to his waist is a battery pack that powers a metal device the size of a money belt. He must wear both or he will die. A tube runs from the device through the wall of Murphy’s stomach and plugs into a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implanted in his chest.
“I’m careful to work in the garden when it is cool because, if I perspire, the area where the LVAD tube enters my stomach gets wet and that poses a risk of infection,” says Murphy, whose calmness approaches Zen level.