UNITED STATES: 59-YEAR-OLD RECIPIENT OF WORLD'S FIRST FULLY CONTAINED ARTIFICIAL HEART DIES OF MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE

Record ID: 338049

  • Title: UNITED STATES: 59-YEAR-OLD RECIPIENT OF WORLD'S FIRST FULLY CONTAINED ARTIFICIAL HEART DIES OF MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE
  • Date: 30th November 2001
  • Summary: (W8)LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 30, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF ARTIFICIAL HEART PATIENT ROBERT TOOLS WALKING (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. VARIOUS OF SURGERY (5 SHOTS) 0.17 3. SV/CU: TOOLS RECOVERING IN HOSPITAL (2 SHOTS) 0.23 4. SV'S: TOOLS LEAVING HOSPITAL 0.33 5. SV: TOOLS STANDING WITH TWO OTHER M
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAAMA4WQ7JLR949MGFK4E8NE9BR
  • Story Text: Robert Tools, the 59-year-old recipient of the world's
    first fully contained artificial heart, died on Friday from
    multiple organ failure caused by abdominal bleeding.



    Robert Tools, who five months ago became the world's
    first recipient of an implanted artificial heart, died on
    Friday (November 30) after suffering bleeding problems, his
    doctors said.

    Tools, 59, developed abdominal bleeding because of
    continuing anti-coagulation problems related to his severe and
    chronic medical condition, they said.

    The Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, where he
    received the implant on July 2, said he died hours after it
    announced he had suffered multiple organ failure.

    At the time of the surgery, doctors said they expected him
    to live one month.

    The grapefruit-sized plastic and titanium replacement
    heart, called AbioCor, is manufactured by Abiomed Inc., based
    in Danvers, Massachusetts.

    The AbioCor clinical trial is designed to test whether the
    device can extend life for patients with end-stage heart
    failure, who have no other clinical option, and provide them
    with a good quality of life.

    Patients accepted into the trial must suffer from
    otherwise untreatable bi-ventricular heart failure, be
    ineligible for heart transplantation, and have a high
    probability of dying within 30 days.

    Earlier this week, the sixth patient to receive the
    artificial heart died from uncontrolled bleeding within 20
    hours of the surgery that implanted the device. The patient,
    identified only as a man suffering from heart failure, died
    despite efforts to stop the bleeding by surgeons from the
    Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in
    Houston.




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