Indy & DickMn: BIG HEADS UP ON ABIOMED!!
Have you guys seen this today?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - An American on the brink of death has received the first self-contained artificial heart in a landmark experimental operation.
Surgeons from the University of Louisville implanted the titanium and plastic pump into the patient at Jewish Hospital on Monday. The hospital released no information on the patient, not even saying whether it was a man or a woman.
``The patient is resting comfortably,'' the hospital said. Spokeswoman Linda McGinity Jackson said the patient had been ``awake and responsive'' Tuesday.
Doctors said they expect the new implant to extend the patient's life only a month or so. But the device is considered a technological leap from mechanical hearts used in the 1980s, which were attached by wires and tubes to machinery outside the body.
The new grapefruit-sized pump, known as AbioCor, is designed to allow recipients to maintain a productive lifestyle while wearing it. No wires, no tubes.
Power is sent from a battery pack worn outside the body through the skin to an implanted coil, control package and backup battery. The internal battery, about the size of a typical pager, can work on its own for about 30 minutes between charges - long enough for a patient to take a shower, for example.
Drs. Laman Gray and Robert Dowling, who trained by implanting the pump in baby cows, performed the surgery. Surgical teams at four other hospitals around the country had been trained to do the surgery, but Louisville was first.
Experts hope the experimental heart, made by Abiomed Inc. (NasdaqNM:ABMD - news) of Danvers, Mass., will lead to new hope for patients with failing hearts.
I must admit -- every time I begin to think my state does nothing but suck, I'm reminded that my home town, besides having probably the best system of public parks in the country, a top-rated symphony, and a nationally-recognized professional theatre, is also the home of the U of L MedSchool, which ranks right up there with Harvard and UCLA.
