Heart pump keeps Jack Wellens, 85, ticking for a record 10 years

Jack Wellens is powered by a heart pump, one that was only supposed to buy an extra two or three years of life, but he is still ticking along a record 10 years later.

Jack Wellens will celebrate a rare and unusual anniversary on Wednesday — 10 years being kept alive by a battery-powered heart pump and at least seven years of borrowed time.

He is the first person in NSW to live this long on the heart pump, which is only designed to buy a patient time on the transplant list.

But 85-year-old Mr Wellens was already 75 when his heart failed, so did not qualify for a transplant. The pump was also not approved for any other use, so Mr Wellens had to pay the $100,000 for the procedure.

Jack Wellens and wife Lyn. Jack has a battery-operated heart pump that keeps him ticking. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

When surgeon Professor Phil Spratt inserted the pump, he told his feisty patient it would only buy him two to three years.

“I told him if I kept the batteries up I’ll go forever and he said: ‘Don’t you kid yourself, no-one has ever reached three years’,” Mr Wellens said.

“I said: ‘I’ve got news for you, I’m going to get my money’s worth’. If I was any fitter I’d be dangerous. I’m energised, well and truly.

“Prof Spratt is retired now but he sometimes comes into the clinic at St Vincent’s and someone mentioned me and he said: ‘Is that bugger still alive’?”

Jack Wellens in hospital on October 20, 2011 when the pump was inserted. Picture: Supplied

A pump similar to the one that keeps Jack Wellens alive.

X-ray of Jack's chest showing LVAD pump (bottom) and defibrillator (top).

The Newport great-grandfather is forever tied to a backpack with batteries that require regular charging and changing.

“Without the pump I’m gone, ta ta, simple as that,” he said, laughing.

“The batteries last between three and five hours and I always have four on charge at any time. I’ve got about five minutes to change them,” he said, adding the alarms go off around the clock, so midnight battery changes are now part of life.

Back in 2001, aged 65, Mr Wellens was trying to lift half a tonne of machinery onto a trailer when he had a heart attack.

Jack Wellens with his battery pack, which he is connected to around the clock. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Jack Wellens is still an avid sailor despite running on a battery-operated heart. Picture: Supplied

He had a triple bypass that bought him an extra 10 good years but then his heart went into failure.

In September 2011, Professor Anne Keogh from St Vincent’s told him he would not make it to Christmas.

“She said she had to do something drastic and I said: ‘What is that?’ and she said put a pump in you and I thought: ‘What the heck!’

Jack Wellens has even climbed the Harbour Bridge with his battery-powered pump for a heart. Picture: Supplied

Jack Wellens sold the kayak because if he fell in, his battery powered heart would stop. Picture supplied

The avid sailor used to sail up and down the east coast with Lyn, his wife of 30 years, but now he prefers the caravan trips.

“We can’t sail up and down the coast any more because you run out of batteries, so we brought a caravan and we’ve been to Tassie, to Mossman Gorge, and Cairns, you name it,” Mrs Wellens, 70, said.

“It’s been great to have those extra years … he was only supposed to get an extra two or three years, so to get the extra seven years has been pretty good.”

He has had to give up some water sports.

“I still sail,” Mr Wellens said.

“But St Vincent’s got a bit upset when they saw a picture of me in the kayak. If you tip over you’re gone, it’s as simple as that and they reckoned they had put a lot of effort into me, so I sold the kayak.”

And of course there have been a few close calls. Four years ago, out on the boat, the computer set off the alarm and for some reason he could not change the batteries.

“The thing started to squawk and then the batteries wouldn’t change, it wouldn’t go in the computer so panic, panic, panic,” he said.

“We went in flat-out and told the club to look after the boat and we raced off to St Vincent’s with this thing kicking up a fuss all the way. I was still running on one battery and apparently I had about 20 minutes left.

“We’ve had a few screaming runs into St Vincent’s and my wife Lyn has been driving fast ever since, she thinks she’s an ambulance driver.”

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