Angelo Tigano, 50 was given only two weeks to live at the start of this month. But last week surgeons at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney gave him the country's first artificial heart after a five-hour operation to keep him alive.
Mr. Tigano was suffering total heart failure and cardiomyopathy, and was unable to lift his head off his pillow without losing breath. This surgery has been performed abroad for several years but in Australia this is a first. The artificial heart replaces both the left and right heart ventricles and can pump 9.5 litres of blood per minute. Two wires from the artificial heart, via the stomach, lead to an external pneumatic driver [machine] that sits outside the body on a trolley or in a backpack and produces gases to allow the heart to pump.
St Vincent's heart-lung transplant director Dr Phillip Spratt said the longest the device had stayed in a person was four years. He said, “I believe technology is advancing rapidly where we could put in an artificial heart, which will become smaller, and say to the patient 'Here you go, you won't need a transplant'…It is possible that in five to 10 years' time we might be able to treat between 200 and 300 people in Australia.” At present up to 50 people are waiting for a heart transplant and of these a quarter die before a donor is available. The operation also costs somewhere around $120,000.
Mr Tigano is on the way to recovery in another three to six months while he waits for a donor heart to be available. He said, “I feel good. I am looking forward to going home.”
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