LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A man implanted with a self-contained artificial heart died 54 days after undergoing the experimental procedure, his surgeons said Tuesday.
David J. Propps, 66, died Sunday at Jewish Hospital. He was among 10 critically ill patients who have undergone the surgery at medical centers across the country; two remain alive.
Propps' medical team was reviewing his case to determine the cause of death. He received the AbioCor device in a 10-hour surgery Jan. 22 at the hospital.
The identity of the patient, a businessman from Lexington, was kept secret until his death. His wife, Maggie, said in a statement he "made his decision to join the (clinical) trial not so much for himself but for the future of medicine."
The AbioCor heart, made by Massachusetts-based Abiomed Inc., is intended for patients with end-stage heart failure who have more than a 70 percent chance of dying within a month.
The softball-sized pump is made of plastic and titanium and powered by batteries. It has no wires or tubes sticking through the skin, a technological leap from earlier mechanical hearts that were attached to machinery outside the body.
Tom Christerson, the longest-living recipient of the pump, died at Jewish Hospital in early February, nearly 17 months after his surgery. The first AbioCor device was implanted in July 2001.
