Chuck Moon and his wife, Nancy, love exploring the country in their RV and navigating the open roads far beyond their home in Brunswick County, North Carolina. But in January 2024, something was putting the brakes on their joy.
Twenty years of cardiac issues were culminating. Chuck’s heart was failing, the decreased blood flow draining his energy. Pressing exhaustion, weakness and shortness of breath allowed him to be active for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time.
“For a guy who was 66 years old, quality of life was not good,” he said.
A little more than one year later, you’d never recognize Chuck as someone struggling to function. During a recent trip to Florida, he and Nancy kayaked 25 miles over five days. It’s an extraordinary change, Chuck said, thanks to his cardiology team and an implant device called a Barostim. In October 2024, Chuck became the first heart failure patient to receive the implant at Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington.
“The outcome has been far better than I ever could’ve imagined,” Chuck said.
Exceptional cardiovascular care.
Lifesaving technology
The Barostim device is a small piece of technology, about the size of a matchbox, that’s put under the skin in the chest. It has a single wire that connects to the carotid artery in the neck, sending gentle electrical pulses to the artery’s sensors, called baroreceptors. These electrical pulses rebalance the autonomic nervous system, which controls heart rate. The brain responds by signaling the arteries to relax and the heart to slow down, making it easier for blood to flow through the body and allowing more time for the heart to fill with blood. The new technology was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019.
Chuck’s longtime cardiologist, Dr. John Rommel at Novant Health Heart and Vascular Institute in Wilmington, recognized him as a good candidate for the Barostim. That’s because his heart failure symptoms weren’t improving, despite prescription medications and an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. He received the ICD in 2018, and it deployed when he suffered his second heart attack in 2021.
His first heart attack happened during a martial arts class in 2005, when he was only 48. He has no family history of heart disease.
Chuck and Nancy had been weighing the idea of seeking a heart transplant when Rommel told them they had another implant option for an added therapy. It did not require open-heart surgery and could be completed close to home.
He explained the Barostim device, provided the couple with research and encouraged them to take their time reading it over and deciding. But within a day, Chuck made up his mind that he was on board.
‘I woke up feeling better’
In October 2024, cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Jeko Madjarov implanted Chuck’s Barostim at New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Madjarov is among only a few physicians in North Carolina who are qualified to perform the procedure.
Madjarov said a significant advantage of the Barostim device is that it works to complement, not compete against, other heart therapies. In fact, most Barostim recipients already have an existing heart device, such as an ICD like Chuck, or a pacemaker. While an ICD is used for heart failure to prevent sudden cardiac death, Barostim improves the symptoms of heart failure, like shortness of breath and fatigue, by “tricking” the nervous system into thinking the body’s blood pressure is normal.
“This makes it easier for the heart to work, and makes the patients feel better and perform better,” Madjarov said.
Chuck’s procedure took less than an hour, and after spending one night in the hospital, he went home the next day. (Many patients return home the same day.)
Once the Barostim is implanted, there’s not just a one-size-fits-all dose of energy it sends to the baroreceptors. “There’s a series of steps that we take where we slowly increase the dosage of the device,” Rommel explained. And during that time, he monitors every detail of the patient’s progress, including improvements in blood pressure, and whether other heart medications need to be adjusted to work best with the new device. This is all a gradual process. But for Chuck, the results of the implant were immediate.
“I woke up feeling better,” he said. “A week later, I was feeling better. Two weeks later, better. It’s incredible.”
Peace of mind
Chuck said most of the time, he doesn’t even think about the fact that the Barostim is there. “It does its work very quietly,” he said.
Best doctors. Amazing nurses. Remarkable care.
But the change in the quality of Chuck’s life has been profound. In early 2024, Nancy was fearful to leave his side for more than an hour or two. She remembers wondering to herself, “Am I losing him this week? Am I losing him tomorrow?”
“This Barostim procedure has taken so much pressure off of me, and it has changed my life,” Nancy said. “The stress level for me has changed 100%.”
In June, the couple will embark on a 15,000-mile RV road trip to Alaska to celebrate their 45-year wedding anniversary, exploring several states and parts of Canada along the way.
“This is the trip of a lifetime,” Chuck said. “Last year this time I was really wondering if I would be able to go. I didn’t think I would have the energy or the stamina.”
Today he’s got stamina to spare, and a heap of gratitude for the cardiology team that restored his wanderlust and zest for life.
“This team has been fantastic and has kept me going,” he said.
