hi everyone, firstly thank you for letting me join the Group. I am at the start of my journey, having had a life changing event 4 weeks ago when I experienced heart failure and how wonderful team NHS have been in helping to stabilise me. I am still in hospital and have been asked to try a Zoll Life Vest for a period of 6-8 weeks. The upside is I can go home and return to hospital after 6-8 weeks to see if medication has been effective. The flip side is the logistic difficulties with the Zoll Life Vest and a few technical difficulties e.g. mobile phone. I have read as much information that I can, most is USA based. I am wondering if anyone here in the UK has experience of using a Zoll Life Vest and if can you kindly share your experiences, thanking you in advance kindest regards John
ZOLL LIFE VEST: hi everyone, firstly... - British Heart Fou...
ZOLL LIFE VEST
i hope you are recovering well from your heart event
i am also a member of a group for an international Takotsubo support group - this is a type of acute, usually short-term heart failure - many of the members are given a Life-Vest (wearable cardioverter defibrillator or WCD), whereas i do not recall a UK member having to wear one, so in UK i would say that we have little experience of them - you may get more helpful responses from a forum with more USA based members
the main comment i have noticed about them is that they are uncomfortable in hot weather
Thank you for your reply. Seems very little information from the USA, many seem to have issues regarding insurance and yes uncomfortable to wear is also mentioned particularly when sleeping. I will be testing one this coming week , will put something out post test. In the meantime thanks again kind regards John
Hi there!
I am based in the UK and was given the Zoll Life Vest in December to wear for 3 months.
I had just had a baby a few weeks before and stayed in hospital for a month due to heart failure. The life vest was my ticket out of there as they wouldnt discharge me without it. Life had already turned upside down for me with my first baby, and the life vest added to this! I did find ways to make it more bearable though:
My main issue was how heavy and cumbersome I found the battery pack. I had it on a shoulder strap but I've read you can have a waist strap instead which might be more comfortable. Mine also kept alarming to tell me I'd knocked the sensors which I found upsetting as everytime I thought it was going off for my heart instead. I felt like women hadn't been considered when designing the vest which I think is why it wasn't fitting me as well as it should have. Hopefully you won't have this issue!
A tip that helped me was to put the battery pack under your pillow when you sleep which helps keep the cables out the way and stops you getting tangled up.
I didn't last the full 3 months and made the decision to stop wearing it in the end as it was disturbing my sleep, which was already tough with a newborn. The sensor alerts drove me mad too!
It is amazing that things like this exist to keep us safe and I think it seems to be a lot more tolerated by men so hopefully you will be ok. I found there was very limited knowledge/support for the vest in the UK and I couldn't find anyone in the UK to talk to that had one which made me feel quite lonely!
I think the main thing to remember is this is temporary and will give you peace of mind if you're already feeling worried about cardiac arrest.
Let me know if I can help in any way with the vest. Good luck! And fingers crossed your medication helps in the meantime too! 😊
hiya, congratulations on your new arrival. Thank you so so much for your comments on the Life Vest
I apparently responded to the same message from your wife. I loved the life vest, was like having a security blanket. As I said, you can call Zoll directly in the US if you have any questions.
Yess you did thanks, I am seeing the UK Zoll rep this week and expect the rep to know. The USA FDA and US mobile network is not the same as in the UK. I have checked the US site and it’s not clear. . The Zol UK rep should be able to provide absolute clarity , will post the outcome n when I know, thanks for getting back to me
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