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American Morning

Artificial Heart Patient Resting Comfortably

Aired July 04, 2001 - 09:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, now we have this update on a story that we first told you about during this hour yesterday. We expect to learn more this morning about the recipient of the first self-contained artificial heart. The landmark surgery was performed at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, and that is where we find medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen this morning.

Good morning, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Leon, in one hour we hope to learn more details about a patient who is said to be resting comfortably in the building behind me. I shouldn't actually say he, we don't know if it's a he or a she, but this person is the first recipient in the world of a totally implanted artificial heart. What we do know about this patient is that he or she was very, very ill before receiving the heart. He or she was told only one month left to live.

Now with the heart, they're really not sure how much time this person has left to live. Abiomed, the company that makes the heart, is hoping that the patient will have six months. Well, they're hoping for a lot longer than that but their immediate goal is six months of life for this patient after putting in the heart.

But as a spokesman for the company told us, it's really something of a gamble. This patient really is a fighter. He or she really took a risk because he or she is the first and they simply don't know how long the person will last on this heart. Of course they tried it out in animals. They put it in calves. The calves lasted for three months with the heart and then they outgrew it. So they're really not sure how long someone can last on this heart.

Let's take a look at this heart, of what it does, how it works. Unlike the ones that were used in the early days with Jarvik, where someone was tethered to a machine the size of a dishwasher, this one is implanted in the patient. So we have the heart that's implanted -- the artificial heart. They also implant an internal battery as well as what's called a controller and that is actually a microchip that controls the rate that the heart will beat and the speed. And there's also an external battery pack that the patient can use once he or she is ambulatory.

And again, in one hour, we hope to learn how this patient is doing - Leon

HARRIS: All right. Thanks much, Elizabeth Cohen.

We're going to have live coverage of that press conference from Jewish Hospital that Elizabeth just talked about. Stay with us, we expect that to come up at about 10:00 a.m. Eastern, 7:00 a.m. Pacific.

And in the meantime, you can log onto our Web site. Our interactive feature there let's you click on parts of that device and learn exactly what they do. It is at CNN.com. AOL keyword: CNN.

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