SoylentNews

CoolHand [soylentnews.org] writes:

ScienceAlert.com [sciencealert.com] has a story on how a young man survived 555 days with an artificial heart in a backpack. T

A 25-year-old has just received a full heart transplant... but not before surviving for more than a year without a human heart inside his body.

Instead, Stan Larkin wore an 'artificial heart' in a backpack 24/7 for 555 days, which pumped blood around his body and kept him alive. The success of the procedure suggests that the device could be used to sustain other patients with total heart failure while they're waiting for a donor.

[...] At the time, no one knew how much he'd be able to do with it. The portable device comes in the form of a 6-kg (13.5 pound) backpack that's connected to the patient's vascular system, to keep oxygenated blood pumping around the body.

It's not the most versatile thing to have on you 24/7, and Stan reported not being able to hold his daughters or give them piggy back rides. But he did manage to continue playing basketball - a total surprise to his doctors.

"This wasn't made for pick-up basketball," said Haft. "Stan pushed the envelope with this technology ... He really thrived on the device."

---

Original Submission