On Thursday, June 22, the patient underwent heart transplant surgery at The Methodist Hospital, where doctors removed the heart assist device and implanted a donor heart in a three-hour procedure. As the TMC News went to press, a Methodist spokesperson reported on June 27 that the patient was recovering well following the surgery and was expected to be released from the hospital in a week and a half. The patient, a native of Houston, was diagnosed with heart failure at the age of 25. Her father lost his battle with the same heart condition when he was 32 years old.
Plans are under way for the trials to be expanded to include other sites around the country.
The tiny axial flow device, weighing less than 4 ounces, assists the left ventricle with its function of pumping blood out to the body. In a normally functioning heart, blood flows into the left ventricle, the largest chamber of the heart, where it is pumped to the ascending aorta. From the aorta, the blood is sent out to nourish the body. The MicroMed DeBakey VAD acts as a messenger between the left ventricle and the aorta. Blood flows from the left ventricle through a titanium inflow tube inserted outside the left ventricle.