LifeVest wearable defibrillator saves Phoenix man's life after heart attack and cardiac arrest
Heart patient credits LifeVest with saving his life
The LifeVest, a wearable heart monitor and defibrillator, saved the life of Isy Sonabend during a cardiac emergency. FOX 10's Lindsey Ragas has the story.
PHOENIX - A life-saving device is the reason a Phoenix man is still here today.
February is American Heart Month. With that in mind, we spoke to a man whose heart is still beating thanks to an innovative device called LifeVest.
Why you should care:
Isy Sonabend is thankful to be alive after suffering a heart attack and going into cardiac arrest.
His survival story is an example how a new technology can save lives.
It all started last March when Sonabend thought he had indigestion problems. Turns out, it was much more than that.
"I did drive myself to the hospital. They hooked me up to an EKG and they said, 'hey, you're having a heart attack. So that was my introduction to it," said Sonabend.
What's next:
From there, Isy's life would be a roller coaster the next two weeks.
"They did put a stent in at that point. But I mean, this is all like very sudden and surprising to me," he said.
The next surprise was his LifeVest. Sonabend's doctor insisted he wear 24/7.
What they're saying:
"This is a wearable garment. It's literally a vest that is worn under the clothes, that can monitor the heart rhythm and if it detects that there is a deadly rhythm that occurs, it can treat the patient for that with an electrical shock and bring them back to life," said Dr. Peter Weiss, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix.
"I wore the LifeVest when I left, and it saved my life," said Sonabend.
Two days later, Isy's wife Benita was woken up in the middle of the night by the LifeVest's alarm.
Isy was going into cardiac arrest and the vest began to shock him.
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"I guess that I was very far gone. I took 40 jolts to my chest between the LifeVest and what they did to me in the hospital," said Isy.
Dr. Weiss was one of Isy's surgeons at Banner.
"Two of us did a procedure with him called a cardiac ablation procedure, a cardiac ablation procedure, which involves going into the heart to find the sites of short circuit and tried to treat it," said Weiss. "Then he did receive a fully implanted, permanent defibrillator by yet a third one of our partners before he left the hospital and went home."
Photo courtesy Isy and Benita Sonabent
Dig deeper:
At one point, Isy was in a coma. He remembers little of what happened after he went into cardiac arrest, but his wife was there every step of the way.
"For something like this to happen, it's earth-shattering and life-changing and just a miracle that it all turned out the way it did," she said.
It's been almost a year since his heart attack.
He says the recovery process is slow, but he's looking forward to getting back on the ice to play ice hockey.