Peter Woerner and his wife, Lynn Fennell, take a break at Earthtones Coffee House in Webster last weekend. Despite many operations, he takes his heart defect in stride, saying, "It’s not a tremendous big deal to me." [Day in Photos] CARLOS ORTIZ staff photographer

WEBSTER — In February, Peter Woerner was a man running out of options.

The wire connected to the defibrillator implanted in his chest was malfunctioning. There was so much scar tissue on his heart from various operations that his doctors did not think it was safe to risk going in to fix the wire.

Without the implantable defibrillator, the 40-year-old, who was born with an irreparable heart defect, would be at risk of going into sudden cardiac arrest and dying.

A solution came in the form of a relatively new product, a wearable defibrillator. LifeVest is worn over the shoulders like a gun holster. An attached heart monitor, strapped around the waist like a fanny pack, constantly monitors Woerner’s heart rhythm and rate.

Should he develop a life-threatening arrhythmia, an abnormal heart rate, the defibrillator would deliver a shock treatment to restore his heart to a normal rhythm. If the heartbeat did not return to normal, the defibrillator would continue to administer shocks — a maximum of five — until the heart rate improved.

"If I didn’t have this, I’d still be in the hospital," Woerner said of the device he removes only for showering. “I’ve been able to go back to my job, do pretty much want I want to do.” Woerner works as a mechanical engineer at Gleason Corp.

Woerner was born with tricuspid valve atresia — in layperson’s terms, he was missing a heart valve and one of two main pumping chambers in the heart. The condition occurs in about one in 5,000 people, said Dr. James Daubert, director of electrophysiology service in Strong Memorial Hospital’s cardiology department. The heart defect can be improved with surgery and medicine, but it can’t be cured, said Daubert.

Years ago, Woerner underwent surgery to reroute his blood flow to compensate for his missing right ventricle. That still left him with one ventricle doing the work of two, which eventually led to enlargement of the ventricle and decreased pumping efficiency of the heart, Daubert said.

Over the years, Woerner has undergone a series of surgical procedures to keep his defibrillators running, tried a string of medications and withstood two open-heart surgeries, two strokes and a cardiac arrest.

In February, doctors determined it was too dangerous to try to repair the damaged wire leading to Woerner’s internal ventricular defibrillator. Due to the accumulation of scar tissue from his various surgeries, Woerner’s heart or a blood vessel could develop a hole during the procedure.

Instead, Woerner was placed on the heart transplant waiting list. He was given a Status 2, which meant that sicker patients, with 1B or 1A status, would be taken ahead of him.

"He may only have one more operation we can do safely, and his best chance is to do a heart transplant at his next operation,” Daubert said. “His heart function is worsening, but he doesn’t qualify for a transplant yet."

The LifeVest is somewhat cumbersome, Woerner said, but it’s buying him time. The $32,000 price tag was picked up by insurance. Daubert has used the pack with several other patients waiting for transplants or recovering from infections, but Woerner is the only one to use it for an open-ended amount of time.

Woerner is unique in other ways.

"He’s a survivor in many respects, including psychologically," Daubert said of his patient of 11 years. "He’s kept on chugging, despite all the operations."

Woerner’s a stoic, agreed his wife, Lynn Fennell.

"He’ll never complain about this stuff — the wires," she said. "I don’t notice it because of the way he treats it. I think I complained about my foot surgery more."

Woerner has learned to take his unpredictable condition in stride.

"I’ve grown up with it all my life," he said. "It’s not a tremendous big deal to me."

Contact Donna Jackel at DJACKEL@DemocratandChronicle.com

Copyright 2003, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Used with permission.