ATLANTA -- “Well, I had 3 blockages in my heart artery – they wanted to do angioplasty to clear them,” explains Walter Wright.

Forty-two-year-old Wright of Americus has a history of significant heart problems. In fact, his heart has been so damaged that the needed angioplasty procedure might actually endanger him. So his doctors used a new device called the tandem heart percutaneous ventricular assist device to actually take over the pumping action of his heart while they performed the angioplasty.

“That means through the skin, you don’t have to make any surgical incisions in the legs and you don’t have to do any open chest procedures,” explains Dr. Vasilis Babaliaros.

And that’s what is so unique about the ventricular assist device – it’s minimally invasive and can take over at least 85 percent of the pumping of the heart.

Under sterile conditions, doctors insert a catheter into a vein in the leg and run that catheter up to the left atrium, where oxygenated blood is then propelled by a small pump attached to the patient’s thigh into another catheter into a large artery called the aorta.

“So essentially it can completely rest the heart which is very important if you’re trying to work on it – it’s very important to allow the heart to heal,” says Dr. Babaliaros.

Candidates for the tandem heart device include those whose hearts have been so severely damaged that a procedure such as angioplasty or even valve surgery would be too risky.

The device can only be used for a short time – several hours -- or as much as 30 days but Dr. Babaliaros says that this time could be lifesaving for patients whose hearts are extremely damaged or too weak to undergo needed procedures.