FOX4: Local 15-year-old one of the first to get new, tiny, life-changing pacemaker

Local 15-year-old Brandon Chavez is getting ready for a life-changing upgrade, as he'll be one of the first—and youngest—in the country to get a Micra AV pacemaker.

The Micra AV is the smallest pacemaker in the world, about the size of a vitamin. Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute will be one of the first in the country to do the newly-approved procedure.

"I'm pretty excited because, know know, I'm one of the first people. I can keep that close for the rest of my life," Brandon told FOX4.

Brandon found out he had a heart block two years ago and got a different type of pacemaker. Since then, he's been dealing with constant infections due to the metal on the device. The Micra AV, however, has zero lead. 

"This new technology came and we are able to receive the signal from the top part of the heart and then pace the bottom. So it will coordinate the top and bottom, which is exactly what he needs," Dr. Sanjaya Gupta, a Saint Luke's cardiologist, said.

Watch FOX4's full story below.

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Sanjaya K Gupta, MD

Cardiology, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology