Artificial Heart

A fist-sized contraption of plastic and metal kept 63-year-old Grant Feusner alive for five weeks earlier this year, pumping blood from his chest to his brain, kidneys and muscles. Doctors had removed most of Feusner's heart, ballooned with disease and too weak to nourish his organs with oxygen and nutrients. It wasn't the first time Feusner's doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center had implanted such a device. Artificial hearts are designed to be used as a bridge from heart failure to heart transplant.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for rain and a high temperature near 84 degrees. Tonight is expected to be rainy, with a low temperature around 74 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Police investigated cannibalism suspect in machete report : Three weeks before Alexander Kinyua was charged with dismembering a family friend and eating some of the body parts, police at Morgan State University investigated a report that the suspect had a machete in his dorm room, school officials confirmed Monday.

Designing an artificial heart seems like a straightforward engineering problem. The heart, after all, is not a space shuttle. It has just one job to do: pump blood. But the agonizing early-1980s experiences of the first few people to have their failing hearts replaced by machines showed that it was anything but straightforward. The first artificial heart recipient, Utah dentist Barney Clark, died after 112 miserable days on a heart pump powered by a bedside box the size of a washing machine.

A fist-sized contraption of plastic and metal kept 63-year-old Grant Feusner alive for five weeks earlier this year, pumping blood from his chest to his brain, kidneys and muscles. Doctors had removed most of Feusner's heart, ballooned with disease and too weak to nourish his organs with oxygen and nutrients. It wasn't the first time Feusner's doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center had implanted such a device. Artificial hearts are designed to be used as a bridge from heart failure to heart transplant.

Federal regulators approved yesterday the first fully implantable artificial heart, which is to be used by dying heart failure patients who are not eligible for transplants. The device, called AbioCor, was tested in 14 patients who lived an average of five months after receiving the mechanical heart. The Food and Drug Administration said it approved the artificial heart for humanitarian use, which means the device was not tested in large clinical trials but might benefit 4,000 or fewer people a year.

1982: Barney Clark: gets artificial heart1984: AIDS virus isolated1992: Dan Quayle chastizes single mom "Murphy Brown"

Artificial heart:Artificial heart: Sharoyn Loughran, an Arizona woman who Monday became the nation's first artificial heart recipient in nearly two years, was taken off a respirator yesterday and listed in critical but stable condition.Ms. Loughran, 46, was awake but weak and was awaiting a human heart at the University of Arizona Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said. Her CardioWest air-driven heart was functioning properly.

1982: Great Britain wins Falklands war1982: Barney Clark receives an artificial heart ...1983: ... He dies after 112 daysPub Date: 12/08/99

The Food and Drug Administration has given a Houston hospital approval to begin experimental use of a portable, battery-powered mechanical device to help a failing heart pump blood until a heart donor can be found.With the new device, the damaged organ stays in place.After patients awaiting heart transplants get the pump implanted, they are expected to be freely mobile because they will not be tethered to a cumbersome external console, as with earlier versions of the device and the Jarvik-7 artificial heart.

In a landmark operation that could lead to the saving of thousands of lives, doctors in Kentucky have implanted the world's first self-contained mechanical heart. It took seven hours for surgeons at the University of Louisville to implant the titanium-and-plastic pump, made by Abiomed Inc. of Danvers, Mass. Cardiologists and others who daily see the results of congestive heart failure - which kills about 46,000 Americans each year - called implantation of the AbioCor artificial heart a major scientific advance.

Federal regulators approved yesterday the first fully implantable artificial heart, which is to be used by dying heart failure patients who are not eligible for transplants. The device, called AbioCor, was tested in 14 patients who lived an average of five months after receiving the mechanical heart. The Food and Drug Administration said it approved the artificial heart for humanitarian use, which means the device was not tested in large clinical trials but might benefit 4,000 or fewer people a year.

In a landmark operation that could lead to the saving of thousands of lives, doctors in Kentucky have implanted the world's first self-contained mechanical heart. It took seven hours for surgeons at the University of Louisville to implant the titanium-and-plastic pump, made by Abiomed Inc. of Danvers, Mass. Cardiologists and others who daily see the results of congestive heart failure - which kills about 46,000 Americans each year - called implantation of the AbioCor artificial heart a major scientific advance.

PHILADELPHIA - The government has given the go-ahead to a Massachusetts company to try its artificial heart in humans. Abiomed Inc. said yesterday it had received Food and Drug Administration approval to test AbioCor - the first totally implantable artificial heart - in five patients at five medical centers around the nation. The first device likely will be implanted during the first half of this year, said Edward Berger, the company's vice president for government and external relations.

Designing an artificial heart seems like a straightforward engineering problem. The heart, after all, is not a space shuttle. It has just one job to do: pump blood. But the agonizing early-1980s experiences of the first few people to have their failing hearts replaced by machines showed that it was anything but straightforward. The first artificial heart recipient, Utah dentist Barney Clark, died after 112 miserable days on a heart pump powered by a bedside box the size of a washing machine.

1982: Barney Clark: gets artificial heart1984: AIDS virus isolated1992: Dan Quayle chastizes single mom "Murphy Brown"

1982: Great Britain wins Falklands war1982: Barney Clark receives an artificial heart ...1983: ... He dies after 112 daysPub Date: 12/08/99

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for rain and a high temperature near 84 degrees. Tonight is expected to be rainy, with a low temperature around 74 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Police investigated cannibalism suspect in machete report : Three weeks before Alexander Kinyua was charged with dismembering a family friend and eating some of the body parts, police at Morgan State University investigated a report that the suspect had a machete in his dorm room, school officials confirmed Monday.

Artificial heart:Artificial heart: Sharoyn Loughran, an Arizona woman who Monday became the nation's first artificial heart recipient in nearly two years, was taken off a respirator yesterday and listed in critical but stable condition.Ms. Loughran, 46, was awake but weak and was awaiting a human heart at the University of Arizona Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said. Her CardioWest air-driven heart was functioning properly.