My contraceptive implant migrated and ended up lodged in my HEART – doctors were lost for words
A WOMAN began to experience frightening symptoms after getting a contraceptive implant inserted into her arm.
Suffering from vomiting, heartburn, heavy bleeding and heart palpitations, Cloe Westerway went get the hormone-releasing rod removed – but to her and doctors’ horror, it was no longer there.
The implant is a small and flexible plastic rod that’s placed under the skin of the upper arm, releasing progesterone into the bloodstream to stop ovulation each month.
It can prevent pregnancy for up to three years and is a handy solution for people who might forget to take a daily pill or can’t take oestrogen, according to the NHS.
You might experience some side effects at first – like lighter or missed periods – and some bruising on the arm, but it’s generally considered a safe contraceptive method.
Cloe, now 22, had hers implanted at her local women’s clinic in Melbourne two years ago.
She told news.com.au that she’d had an implant before when she was 15 and had preferred to taking the pill, as it reduced her period pain.
As a result, Cloe said she had no nerves at all before the procedure.
She told the outlet: “I didn’t have any issues straight away, but then I was having severe nerve pain, heartburn, palpitations and vomiting.
“Looking back, I realise I never actually felt it into my arm, and you are meant to be able to feel it. So obviously, it was not implanted properly.”
Doctors could figure out what was making her so sick and decided to remove the implant to relieve Cloe’s symptoms.
Stumped as to why they couldn’t find it in her arm, they ran multiple tests – only to discover it was lodges in the pulmonary arteries of Cloe’s heart.
The 4cm device had travelled up into her right ventricle and then into the heart’s left chamber.
Cloe recalled: “The doctors were absolutely shocked. They had no idea what to do or say, or how they were going to extract this.
“They told me it has never happened before. I was totally lost for words and absolutely terrified.”
She claimed the specialists told her the implant hadn’t been inserted properly.
Now the 22-year-old will have to undergo major surgery to remove the implant from her heart – first lung surgery and possibly followed by an open heart surgery.
She’ll need to spend a week in hospital and take another six to eight weeks off work to recover, she told news.com.au.
“I will be starting with lung surgery, so they cut from the start of my breast to my back and try to pull apart my lungs,” she explained.
“However, it is a small space and a far distance, so I have been advised that I will most likely need open heart surgery as well if they cannot get it.
“The recovery will be very painful. I won’t be able to lift anything, or even get up by myself.”
The rod in her heart might have killed Cloe if she had waited any longer to see a doctor.
She also fears possible complications from the surgery, which is scheduled for September 28.
In the UK, the implant in known as Nexplannon. As of June 2019, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recorded 126 reports of implant migration.
“Of these reports, 18 mention migration to the lung,” the MHRA wrote in documents published in February 2020.
“Worldwide, a total of 107 cases of migration to the pulmonary artery and lung have been identified by the marketing authorisation holder since Nexplanon was launched,” it added.