| News From Transplant Week of March 3, 2002 / Vol. 3 No. 9 |
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70-Year-Old Man Passes Six Months With AbioCor Artificial Heart |
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A 70-year-old Kentucky man this week became the first person to live for six months with an implanted self-contained artificial heart. Tom Christerson, 70, of Central City, KY, has been reported steadily recovering at Jewish Hospital in Louisville since he received the plastic and titanium heart pump in a Sept. 13 surgery. "I hope when this is over, I can go home and get back to fishing," Christerson said in a 20-minute meeting with reporters. Asked if he considered himself a hero, Christerson said: "I don't think I am a hero. I just want to live." Doctors say Christerson could be able to go home four or five weeks if his recovery continues to go well. He attended a Louisville Cardinals basketball game earlier this month, and also has been able to take trips to a mall, a restaurant on the Ohio River, and a boat show. "His
medical condition continues to improve day by day," said
Dr. Robert Dowling, one of the surgeons who implanted the device.
"He's gaining strength. He had some problems with his lungs.
Those are now resolved. We're just working on this strength."
Christerson became the second person in the world to receive the AbioCor device, getting his artificial heart two months after device was implanted at the same hospital in Robert Tools, 59, of Franklin, KY. Tools survived for 151 days before dying from uncontrolled abdominal bleeding and multiple organ failure. Only one other of the original six men to receive the AbioCor hearts is still living with the device humming inside his chest. James Quinn, 51, of Philadelphia, who received the heart at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, was readmitted with breathing difficulties a month ago after three weeks of living outside the hospital in a hotel suite. All of the initial patients to receive the AbioCor were dying of heart failure and were too sick to qualify for human heart transplants. The plastic-and-titanium
device has an internal battery and controller that are implanted
with the heart and an external battery that passes electricity
through the skin. Other sources: AP |
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