Abiomed Patient Summit 2023
Our philosophy is: Patients first! At our Patient Summit in Aachen, we brought this commitment to life: On July 18, we had the privilege to welcome three patients who have been treated with our Impella® heart pump, and their relatives
Each of them told us their stories - and showed us what we are able to achieve with our work. In return, we told them about the technology that helped recover their hearts. A day entirely dedicated to connecting, exchange and appreciation.
Patient Stories - As Versatile as the Areas of Application of the Impella Heart Pump
Olga Kreinin, Monika Röpkes and Klaus Rath - three people, three hearts affected, three stories, one common experience: All of them were treated with Impella® heart pumps. Today, they live a fairly normal life with a regenerated heart - or in the case of Klaus Rath, with a transplanted heart. The reasons for the usage of the Impella® heart pump were as individual as the patients themselves: In Klaus Rath's case, it was chronic heart failure, and the Impella® heart pump helped bridge the time until the much needed heart transplantation. In Olga Kreinin's case, it was the severe course of a COVID-19 infection that resulted in cardiogenic shock. Here, the Impella® heart pump was used - as it was the case with Monika Röpkes, who suffered a cardiogenic shock out of nowhere - to temporarily provide relief to the native heart thereby allowing it recover. All three are representatives of more than 250,000 patients worldwide who have been treated with the Impella® heart pump to date.
The Fascination of Manufacturing
While visiting the European headquarters in Aachen during the Patient Summit, they were welcomed by our Managing Director Dirk Michels, followed by a tour through our production facilities where they were able to see where and how the world's smallest heart pump is actually being built.
"Meeting Olga in person was a very emotional moment for me. It was an amazing feeling to see how an Impella® heart pump I had worked on contributed to her being healthy again and able to live a normal life. This encounter meant a lot to me and was really motivating," reports Simo Djuran, a production associate.
"It was exciting to meet the very people who built 'my' heart pump. In a way, they are my superheroes. Because at the end of the day, 'their' pump made sure I made it okay through the wait for my donor heart without losing my optimism."
Patient Klaus Rath, 64 years
Pilates Workshop with Patient Olga Kreinin
Afterwards, the guests and their relatives, together with our employees, were invited to participate in various workshops. Besides immune-boosting cocktails, barista classes and flower arranging, we had one particularly popular highlight: Patient Olga Kreinin, who has resumed working as fitness coach in her hometown in Israel after her cardiogenic shock and successful treatment with the Impella® heart pump, gave two Pilates workshops on our rooftop terrace. A wonderful experience for all participants and a great proof that we can accomplish our big goal: To support the regeneration of our patients' hearts allowing them to regain the greatest quality of life possible.
“The treatment with the heart pump is one of the main reasons why I am able to be what I mostly love being: A Fitness coach and an active mother of my three children. I have really enjoyed getting to know the Abiomed team and giving something back to them with my workshop," Olga Kreinin (42) sums up the day.
Abiomed CTO and Impella® inventor Dr. Thorsten Sieß also emphasizes how the Patient Summit helps bring Abiomed's mission of "Patients First" to life: "For all of us at Abiomed, the Patient Summit has been an incredibly valuable experience. Interacting personally with the patients literally reflects what we work for every day, and that our purpose of putting 'Patients First' really makes a difference. I would like to thank Olga Kreinin, Monika Röpkes and Klaus Rath very much for taking the time to visit us in Aachen!"
The Abiomed Patient Summit 2023 flew by fast, and we are already looking forward to the new edition next year.
Learn more about Impella® heart pumps
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