Artificial Hearts

UCLA surgeons successfully implanted a self-contained artificial heart in a patient Wednesday, marking only the fourth time it has been done and the first time in the West. Dr. Hillel Laks, who headed the surgical team, said Thursday that the 11-hour procedure "went exceptionally well and the artificial heart is functioning beautifully." The patient, a man in his 70s, was said to be resting comfortably. UCLA Medical Center did not release any other details about him. Abiomed Inc.

Most of us aren't mindful of the constant flow of blood through our bodies, but 20-year-old Maria Amezquita can hardly miss hers. She can see her blood through the windows of the two plastic and metal pumps embedded in her chest. Valves click. Lights blink on a big, beeping console that sends rhythmic pulses of air down tubes to make the pumps push, then relax. Amezquita, 20, is waiting at UCLA for a heart to replace her own.

A "desperately ill" man became the world's third recipient of a self-contained mechanical heart after a six-hour operation. The procedure Wednesday at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston follows the success of two implants of the AbioCor device at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky. "The procedure . . . went as expected, and the patient is resting comfortably," the hospital said in a statement Thursday. "It couldn't have gone better," Dr. O. H.

Kentucky surgeons who implanted the first self-contained artificial heart in a human in July said Thursday they had performed a second such surgery. A hospital spokesman said late Thursday that the recipient was 70-year-old Tom Christerson of Central City, Ky., a retired tire store owner whose son, Kenny, owns the NASCAR Busch Grand National Racing Team. Dr. Laman Gray and Dr.

The world's first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart is out of intensive care, marking another milestone in his recovery in Louisville. Robert Tools, 59, was transferred to the transitional care unit, two months after the plastic and titanium heart was implanted, Jewish Hospital officials said. "While we continue to have ups and downs, Bob's overall recovery is remarkable," Dr. Laman Gray said. "Looking at him today, you would never know how gravely ill he was just 10 weeks ago."

After more than seven weeks of secrecy, an intensely curious world finally got a glimpse Tuesday of the first recipient of a totally enclosed artificial heart--and a hint of what it is like to live with a metal and plastic organ distinctly different from the flesh-and-blood heart it replaced. "The biggest thing is getting used to not having a heartbeat, except here I have a whirring sound," said 59-year-old Robert L. Tools.

The recipient of the first self-contained artificial heart has suffered a setback, requiring a ventilator once more to assist his breathing, one of his surgeons said. The patient, who has not been identified, had a buildup of secretions in his lungs and was put back on the breathing machine because he remained too weak to expel mucus secretions on his own. The man also had developed a pulmonary infection and was running a fever, said Dr.

The first human recipient of a completely internal artificial heart is doing "remarkably well" one month later, his doctor said Wednesday in Louisville, Ky. The unidentified diabetic, in his mid-to-late 50s, is now walking and talking and growing stronger by the day, said Dr. Robert Dowling, one of the surgeons who implanted the device in the patient at Louisville's Jewish Hospital.

The peril is great. The promise, initially, is small. And the fears can be overwhelming. But desperate patients sign up for medical experiments anyway, willing to be human guinea pigs, clinging to the thinnest sliver of hope that the latest discovery might save their lives. It's such eagerness that puts vulnerable patients into the hands of doctors and scientists keen to test new ideas and treatments. Patients are needed for these tests, but do they know what they're getting into?

Two weeks after his heart was replaced with an artificial organ made of plastic and titanium, the first human recipient of a fully implantable artificial heart is doing well, but remains extremely sick, his surgeons said Monday in a news conference. The still-unidentified man, who was fitted with the artificial heart two weeks ago at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., is doing better than expected, said his surgeons, Dr. Laman Gray and Dr.