Retired State Trooper Returns to His Active Lifestyle After Receiving Impella Support

Chris Decker is a husband, father and retired police officer from Epsom, NH. In 2010, Chris injured his back while assisting a stranded motorist. In 2017, he began experiencing back pain that he attributed to his previous injury. Days later, the pain became so excruciating that he went to the emergency room at Concord Hospital. Tests revealed Chris had multiple coronary artery blockages and was in cardiogenic shock. He was rushed to the catheterization lab where Dr. Shahab Moossavi implanted the Impella CP heart pump to allow his heart to rest before he was transferred by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

After one day of Impella support, Chris’s heart function improved and Impella was removed while he underwent successful coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). After spending ten days in the hospital, Chris returned home to his family with dramatically improved heart function. One hundred days after his hospitalization, Chris climbed Mt. Washington, the highest peak in New England, and the following day, he returned to the line of duty. 

Today, Chris is retired and he and his wife, Christine, enjoy traveling the world; they recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in Africa.