Albo Heart Transplant
The article I picked for this assignment was one from the Monday, September 9 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I found the article in the national news section, on the 3rd or 4th page,
The title is “Nearly a Year Later, His Heart is Beating Strong.” This article is a story about a 71 year old man named Tom Christerson who on September 13, 2001, received a heart transplant, not a real heart from an organ donor. Intsead he recieved a softball sized mechanical pump made up of plastic, titanium, and batteries. The synthetic heart is called “AlbioCor,” and from my understanding is far more advanced than its predecessors in many ways. Perhaps the most important difference is that the implant is totally self contained; there are no wires or tubes that need to be connected outside of the body. From my understanding out of the 5 other people to receive this particular implant Tom has survived the longest, and among all artificial heart recipients the longest survival has been 620 days.
Before Mr. Christerson received the implant doctors said he had only days to live, and walking only
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