Man With Artificial Heart Celebrates First Month
Aug. 2, 2001 -- He was given 30 days to live before the operation that made him the first person to get a new type of mechanical heart. A month later, it's time to celebrate.
And celebrate he has. Now able to stand and walk with assistance, the still-unidentified man in his mid-to-late 50s ate ice cream and cake with his family. He's still very ill -- but for a person who's been at death's door, he's doing very well indeed.
"Life is wonderful," he said in a videoconference to doctors planning more of the experimental operations. Another four are planned -- and if they go well, the experiment calls for a total of 15 patients to receive the implants.
The plastic-and-titanium artificial heart is called the AbioCor device by manufacturer Abiomed Inc. Along with a battery pack and a charging device, it is fully implanted within a patient's chest. In animal studies it has worked flawlessly for more than a year. In the first person to receive the device, it's still ticking -- or swishing, as doctors describe its sound.
"He was facing death 30 days ago and he knew it," says heart surgeon Robert Dowling, MD, who with colleague Laman Gray, MD, performed the operation at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky. "Now he is looking forward to life. He is very positive. He is just happy to be here."
Dowling is quick to point out that the patient is recovering from extremely severe illness and that he remains weak from malnutrition, which is common when someone is so sick. But the man now spends most of his day outside his hospital room, joking with nurses, undergoing physical therapy, and spending time with his family. He shows no sign of infection and all of his vital organs are recovering from the severe heart failure that would have killed him. Because he was so ill, he was not strong enough to survive a normal heart transplant.
"Our goal is not to have him live 30 or 60 days, our goal is to have him live months and years," Dowling says. "The bigger celebration will be the first year anniversary and the second year anniversary."