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Biotech / Medical : ABMD - Replacement Heart System -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: High-Tech East who wrote (94)	8/6/2001 9:38:28 AM
From: High-Tech East	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 147

Doctors: Artificial Heart Patient Could Be Released Soon LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (CNN) -- A doctor for a man who received a totally contained artificial heart said Thursday the patient is doing very well just a month after his revolutionary surgery and could be released "relatively soon." Dr. Robert Dowling of Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, said the release could be "probably within a month's time." "But it's going to be up to him. I'm just speculating now ... but I think at least a couple of weeks, maybe a little bit longer," said Dowling in an interview with CNN. "He's anxious to get out and show the world that he's just a normal guy that kind of had a bad set of circumstances fall on him and how he was able to deal with that. I think he wants to get a little stronger and feel more confident," Dowling said. "But I think [he'll be released] relatively soon." Dowling said the man, who lives in the United States, is "doing wonderful" and is gaining his strength. "He's able to get up and move around," he said. "We're just very pleased with his progress." The man's identity has not been released, but doctors said he is in his mid- to late 50s. The man was gravely ill when he came into the hospital, making him eligible for the experimental surgery, according to physicians. He had been turned down by a heart transplant center and was suffering from renal failure and diabetes. Doctors have said the man had an 80 percent chance of dying within 30 days had he not had the surgery. "When we first had him he was very aware of his limited survival of his own mortality, and I think every day that he has he views as a blessing," Dowling said. "We had a video conference with some of the other surgeons and nurses that are involved in the project, and his one message to them was 'Life is wonderful.'" Dowling, who said the man's true personality is emerging as he gets stronger, said the patient is "just full of life and he's a very clever, witty, a little bit of a prankster. So it's been fun." "He's just happy to be here with us and happy to be able to breathe without any effort and get up and so forth," Dowling said. The new heart is revolutionary in that former artificial hearts had to be powered by external controllers, often weighing as much as 300 pounds. The new heart, developed by AbioMed of Danvers, Massachusetts, was sewn inside the patient's body along with a battery pack and controller, and has no tubes or wires extending outside his chest. The implanted battery pack is for short-term use. Doctors said the heart normally is powered by a unit that is "plugged into the wall" and transmits an electrical current through the skin. The doctors, nurses and other works at Jewish Hospital at the University of Louisville are keeping the patient "busy," Dowling said. "We have a physical therapist coming to see him and the nurses are exercising him," he said. "Sometimes he just goes and hangs out at the nurses' station and interacts with all the doctors, the lung doctors, the kidney doctors, everyone that's coming by. Sometimes he just listens to his CDs or watches a videotape." cnn.com