“Bentley Vascular Talk”: A long-term aorta patient evokes emotional moments during the Bentley vascular trialogue

A very moving talk at Zollernalb: during the “Bentley Vascular Talk”, a 59-year-old patient described how Bentley stents not only saved his life but also completely changed his attitude towards life. More than 300 Bentley employees from Hechingen and Switzerland listened rapt with attention to the report of Rainer Baumann (name changed) about his suffering and treatment history as a long-term patient with fissures and bulges in the aorta. In a dialogue with his physician, Prof. Dr. Philipp Geisbüsch, Chief Physician of the Clinic for Vascular Surgery at the Klinikum Stuttgart, and Bentley CEO Sebastian Büchert, he vividly described how Bentley's stents have changed his life for the better.

 

"The fact that our CEO got wet eyes on the podium says it all about those special moments": this is how Philipp Herbst, Head of Quality at Hechingen-based medical technology company Bentley, describes his impressions of the Bentley Vascular Talk. However, it wasn't just CEO Sebastian Büchert who became very emotional during the innovative in-house talk format in front of 300 employees from Hechingen and Switzerland; one of the employees people he spoke to also had to swallow hard during his talk.

He was even more impressed by the story that the now 59-year-old told. As Baumann reported on the podium, it began 16 years ago when he sat up in the dental chair at the end of a visit to the dentist and suddenly felt "as if someone was stabbing me in the chest". Resting was no use. "I rang my physician: I can't breathe anymore." On the way to the physician’s practice, he felt mortal fear for the first time: "Every heartbeat hurt. I knew that everything was at stake." This was also the view of the physician, who immediately had the 43-year-old transported to the emergency room in Tübingen. There it turned out that the inner layer of the aorta wall had torn. Experts refer to this as an aortic dissection - a life-threatening finding because downstream organs such as the kidneys are no longer adequately supplied and blood pressure rises to immeasurable heights. "The tricky thing about diseases of the aorta is that there are hardly any warning signs beforehand," explained Prof Geisbüsch. "If you feel something, there is already a risk that the aorta will burst." And that is usually fatal.

Only an immediate operation could help Rainer Baumann. In 2008, this meant open surgery under a heart-lung machine. The patient's body was "switched off" for two and a half hours, the torso was cut open once in a semicircle and then shut again with 47 staples. Baumann's aortic aneurysm was repaired, but the operation and its consequences completely traumatised him. "For a year, I felt as if a truck had driven over me," the patient described. He suffered pain, felt numbness in his legs that never completely disappeared - and repression mechanisms set in: he didn't want to see a physician again for eight years, neglected the "aortic check-up", the regular follow-up care that is as important as for cancer patients.

But by 2020 at the latest, Baumann had to face up to the realities: One kidney was already damaged, and dangerous weak points were again recognised in the aorta. Physicians threatened new operations, but Baumann would rather die than be cut open again.

Advances in medical technology promised a way out of the dilemma: in several minimally invasive, endovascular procedures, Rainer Baumann's aorta was almost completely replaced from the heart valve to the groin with customised stents from other manufacturers and numerous bridging stents from Bentley. No one was more amazed at how gently these procedures were performed than the patient himself. With moist eyes, he told the podium how he was able to travel to Berlin just five days after an operation to celebrate a birthday. A completely different world, this type of operation.

At the age of 59, Rainer is not cured, he remains a high-risk patient who needs careful aftercare and has to swallow 14 tablets every morning to keep his blood pressure stable. But his quality of life has been restored thanks to modern surgical techniques - and his attitude to life has completely changed for the better. "It's fantastic," said Rainer Baumann. "I'm no longer afraid." And to the Bentley staff, who were listening spellbound: "What you make possible with your products is much greater than you could have imagined."

Prof Geisbüsch also confirmed this: "What you do makes our work with patients so much easier. Also thanks to stents like those from Bentley, an operation now only takes two or three hours instead of ten in the past." And because of Bentley's high delivery stability, physicians always have the stent of first choice to hand. The vascular surgeon's appeal: "Keep up the good work with these innovations!"

Sebastian Büchert promised: "We are working hard to continue to live up to this reputation". His thanks went to Bentley co-founder Lars Sunnanväder, who was also present, and who had made a major contribution to these innovations by founding the company.

The finale was a very emotional moment for dozens of Bentley employees who were called up by name. All those who - neatly documented - worked on the catheters and stents that saved Rainer Baumann's life were gathered on stage for a group picture with "their" patient. Marina Orsolic, coach for organisational and talent development at Bentley Switzerland, who had travelled by bus from Frauenfeld together with 60 colleagues, summed up what the afternoon had brought to the workforce: "We were shown that our work is extremely meaningful. It fulfils me to be able to work for a company like this."

 

About Bentley
Founded in 2009 by Lars Sunnanväder and Miko Obradovic, Bentley InnoMed GmbH is based in the medical technol­ogy stronghold of Hechingen in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. The company develops, manufactures, and markets implants and catheters for the endovascular treatment of peripheral vascular and aortic diseases. The company has since then become a leading global manufacturer and the European market leader for covered stents. The company is part of the Bentley Endovascular Group. More than 440 employees are committed to the Group’s strong culture of innovation, making Bentley one of the most important employers in the county of Zollernalb and beyond. Based on its product innovations and the development of new markets, the company is on a path of strong growth momen­tum.