Fishers Drum Teacher's Heart Heals So Well Doctors Remove His Pump

Four years after pneumonia and sepsis nearly killed him and left his family drafting his obituary, Peter Van Schoick's heart has recovered so completely that doctors at IU Health Methodist Hospital removed the mechanical pump keeping him alive. The Fishers, Indiana man now teaches drum lessons, plays in a band, and has written a series of books — a turnaround his cardiologist calls exceedingly rare.

Van Schoick was hospitalized in January 2022 with pneumonia, sepsis and heart failure, and he spent several weeks in a coma, according to WTHR. He has said his heart stopped while he was hospitalized, and his family and friends wrote an obituary during that stretch when his condition looked dire. That October, surgeons implanted a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, to keep blood pumping from his heart.

A Rare Reversal in the ICU

Doctors at IU Health Methodist Hospital initially planned to evaluate Van Schoick for a heart transplant. Instead, his condition kept improving. Dr. Onyedika Ilonze, the cardiologist overseeing his care, said Van Schoick's heart improved enough that doctors began questioning whether a transplant was needed at all, and the station's report notes Van Schoick did not hesitate when the option arose to have the LVAD removed entirely.

This year, IU Health Methodist Hospital doctors removed Van Schoick's LVAD once his heart became strong enough to function on its own — a milestone the hospital recorded as its first complete LVAD explantation. Ilonze called the outcome exceedingly rare. National registry data reviewed in PMC back that up: complete native heart recovery leading to total device removal occurs in only 1% to 2% of patients on continuous-flow LVADs, with most recipients keeping the pump permanently or using it as a bridge to transplant.

How Sepsis Can Wreck — and Sometimes Spare — the Heart

Van Schoick's case traces back to a specific mechanism doctors have studied closely. Severe pneumonia and sepsis can trigger acute sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy, a form of heart dysfunction marked by a sudden drop in the heart's pumping ability that can fully reverse within days to weeks once the underlying infection clears, according to research published in PMC. That condition affects roughly 20% to 30% of patients in septic shock and can severely impair heart muscle before any recovery takes hold.

Separate clinical research helps explain how mechanical support paired with the right drug regimen can coax a damaged heart back toward normal function. A prospective trial known as RESTAGE-HF, published in Circulation, found that combining LVAD mechanical unloading with an aggressive, targeted heart failure medication regimen produced enough myocardial recovery for device removal in up to 40% to 50% of selected patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. The study stressed that regular testing of underlying cardiac function alongside optimized drug therapy was crucial to sustaining that kind of remission. Ilonze has advised that doctors should guide patients closely through that kind of treatment process, and he has urged young people generally to keep up with regular doctor visits.

From Coma to Drum Kit

Van Schoick has said the LVAD that kept him alive ended up motivating him to build a new life once he recovered. He returned to a full functional life, joined a band, and started teaching drum lessons at Bach to Rock, a music school in Fishers. Bach to Rock Fishers, located on East 116th Street, opened in 2021 as an education-based school offering private instrument lessons and group bands for children and adults, according to the Towne Post Network.

Van Schoick has said that positive and active pursuits helped him focus outside himself during recovery. That included writing. He wrote a minimalist phrase book called The Malphabet, illustrated by his daughter, in which each page pairs a single unexpected two-word phrase with colorful visual art meant to spark thought and conversation. The book was later featured on The Omnibus, the podcast co-hosted by Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings, who authorized an endorsement quote from the show to appear on future editions, according to Malphabet Books.

More Books on the Way

Van Schoick has since written a second and third book, Cymbalism and Humblebee, with Humblebee published in August 2025 by ReadersMagnet LLC. He plans to release a fourth book, titled Birdwatch. Van Schoick began compiling the words and phrases while recovering physical function after waking from his weeks-long coma, a habit he has said helped keep his brain sharp during the long road back.

Van Schoick's recovery lands against a broader public health backdrop in Indiana, where more than 31% of adult Hoosiers suffer from high blood pressure, a primary risk factor for chronic cardiovascular disease and heart failure, per the Indiana Department of Health. Doctors caution that complete LVAD removal, while a best-case outcome, still carries surgical risk and the possibility of recurrent heart failure — a reminder that Van Schoick's story, however striking, remains the exception rather than the rule.