Doctors say patient who recieved first artificial heart is doing well

Robert Tools, 59, recipient of the first, fully-contained artificial heart, is doing better than expected after his life saving surgery on July 2, at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky.

Stricken with a life-threatening heart condition, renal failures and diabetes, Tools was not accepted to the heart transplant program and thus was an eligible candidate to become one of five patients involved in the clinical trial of the artificial heart.

Doctors say that Tools had an 80-percent chance of dying if he had not received the surgery within 30 days.

Dr. Robert Dowling, Tools' doctor, said that he was "He has exceeded our expectations. The device has worked perfectly well. His organs have all recovered even beyond what we had hoped that they might. We are pleased with his results."

Dowling explained that, "he was very aware of his limited survival of his own mortality, and I think every day that he has he views as a blessing."

The device, called the AbioCor Implantable Replacement Heart, manufactured by Abiomed Inc., is implanted entirely inside the body and is battery-powered.

The AbioCor is comprised of a two-pound internal thoracic unit containing two artificial ventricles with valves and a motor-driven hydraulic pumping system, designed to pump blood through the lungs and body.

The AbioCor is regulated by an internal controller and electronics that monitors pumping speed. The device is powered by an internal battery which is perpetually recharged by an external battery worn around the waist. A transduction device transmits the electricity through the skin to the internal battery.

"The device needs to be forgettable. You need to have it on and live your life and not worry about it. From a purely medical perspective, the main obstacles are infection and stroke," said Dr. Mehmet Oz, director of the Cardiovascular Institute of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

Nearly 700,000 die from heart failure each year in the United States but only about 2,000 donor hearts become available each year. The AbioCor could potentially help improve and extend the lives of many heart disease patients who have failed all existing therapies. Researchers say that 100,000 patients could benefit from the device which costs about $70,000.

"One of the key issues as a population that we have to address is what are we willing to pay for these new technologies," explained Oz, one of the approved investigators who could be implanting the device in another patient.

"I think that we should expect to spend about $70,000-per-year to keep someone alive. Not twice that, but also not half that. If we have that rational expectation and insist on getting that quality for our money, I think we'll be happy."

Potential dangers still abound. Tools signed a 15-page consent form describing all the potential risks that could result in death. Doctors predicted that the patients in the study would die on the device, however it is hoped that the AbioCor could extend their lives at least a year.

The FDA has approved an initial study of five patients, the success of whom will be monitored after 60 days, and depending on how well they do the study could be expanded to a total of 15 patients.

"So far we have been blessed," said Dowling. "The heart itself has functioned flawlessly. There has not been a single concern or period where an alarm went off or the heart even skipped a beat. So no problems at all with the heart itself."

Doctors say that Tools is progressing remarkably and that he could be released "relatively soon."

Dowling comments that his patient is, "just full of life and he's a very clever, witty, a little bit of a prankster. So it's been fun."

In and interview with CNN anchor Joie Chen Dowling exclaimed, "It was - at times overwhelming, thrilling. I remember right after we did the surgery I was so proud of our team. I think the most emotion I had was, I was just thrilled for the patient. He was facing a certain death and he had the courage to take a chance. He knew it was experimental. He knew it might not work. It has just been thrilling every day to go see him.