support a failing heart here to discuss something called ventricular assist device or vads we have joseph shukis is a patient living with a ventriclar assist device vad doctor george batsides who is a chief of cardac surgery at rwj university hospital audrey kleet is a vad coordinator at morristown medical center and finally sharon holman is a senior occupational therapist at kessler institute for rehabilitation i want to thank all of you for joining us this is interesting other than the fact that ventricular assist device is a hard thing to say doctor it is huge important and groundbreaking no? absolutely these devices are mechanical circulatory support systems that help support patients with failing hearts you know we - in the united states i think there's about 2000 transplants done a year 2000? 2000 a year 2200 roughly worldwide it's about 5,000 so there's probably about 100,000 patients in the us alone that could benefit from a device like this part of it is getting the word out these patients have failing hearts for a multitude of reasons whether it's mi's heart attacks whether it's idiopa