In the News
The Future is Now
February 1, 2009
The Saturday Evening Post - The inventor tinkering in a garage and coming up with a better mousetrap is a cherished American image. These days, that tinkering is likely to take place at a sophisticated computer or high-powered microscope. But no matter how they do their work, scientists continue to come up with ingenious and useful advances. Here are a few gee-whiz breakthroughs that are already helping us, or soon will.
Ahead of the Bell: Thoratec HeartMate II data
December 5, 2008
Forbes.com - Medical device maker Thoratec Corp. says clinical trial data shows its new HeartMate II pump is more effective than one of its older products in patients who are too ill to receive a heart transplant.
Teen picture of health a year later
October 15, 2008
New Straits Times - Clad in a blue skirt and a white top and jacket paired with a pair of white high-heeled shoes, a blue chain and a white slingbag, the teenager was every bit a fashionista as she flashed a confident smile at those present at a news conference organised by the National Heart Institute.
Benefit to assist heart patient
September 4, 2008
The Post-Standard - Ken Whitney has had so many heart attacks that even a close family friend isn't sure whether it's been six or seven. He's also had at least four surgeries related to his heart, including two triple bypasses.
FDA Approval Of Heart Pump May Give New Hope To Patients
August 26, 2008
Investor's Business Daily: New America - Heart transplants offer hope to more than 2,000 advanced heart failure patients each year. But roughly 250,000 people die from the chronic heart disease.
Heart device pumping new life in patients, firm's bottomline
August 20, 2008
Contra Costa Times - The heart of Chula Vista resident Debra Kinney was down to its last beats.
Health Watch: Heart Transplant Pump
July 15, 2008
WAGA-TV CH 5 (FOX) Atlanta - Adam Cooper was a healthy college senior until this Spring, when he caught a flu-like virus he just couldn't shake. Now, more than two months after he was hospitalized at St. Joseph's hospital, Adam is finally hoping to go home.
Heart Pump Gives Patients Needed Time
June 30, 2008
Fox 43 News KTMJ-TV CH 43 (FOX) Topeka - A St. Joseph man needs a heart transplant, but he's not eligible for one yet because he just quit smoking a few months ago.
Heart Device Could Have More Uses
May 15, 2008
KEYC TV - News 12 - Right now there are close to 5-million people in America suffering from heart failure. Many of these people would benefit from a heart transplant, but because most of them are over age 65, they're often not eligible for that life-saving operation. Now, doctors at Mayo Clinic are studying a device that could be the answer.
Revolutionary Heart Device Closes Gender Gap
Jan 25, 2008
ABC World News with Charles Gibson - From the outside, Salina Gonzales looks pretty much like any other shopper—but it's what's going on inside her body that is so remarkable.
The Mysterious Human Heart
Oct 17, 2007
PBS - Endlessly Beating examines the heart as a muscle - pumping almost 100,000 times a day, pushing approximately five quarts of blood in an endless course to deliver oxygen to every cell of the human body. This hour tells the story of the normal heart through the histories of three people with end-stage heart failure, where a pump may be a temporary remedy, but in the long term, a transplant is almost always necessary.
Barnes-Jewish's Artificial Heart Program celebrates 10 years
Oct 2, 2007
South County Journal - Oct. 1, 1997 marked a significant date in the history of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. For the first time in their long history, a patient suffering from end-stage heart failure had a portable ventricular assist device (VAD) implanted to help his failing heart beat.
Lighter, improved heart pump
Sep 25, 2007
The Washington Times - The strap and battery pack worn over Roger-Guy M. Folly's shoulder gives new meaning to wearing your heart on your sleeve.
Pump buys time in wait for a heart
Sep 22, 2007
Sacramento Bee - For Steven "Stretch" Andersen, the signs of heart failure were hard to ignore: Winded after climbing a few bleacher steps at the NASCAR race in Las Vegas, unable to finish even half a New York steak, his normally ruddy complexion turning a dull gray.
Savannah Woman First in Georgia to Receive HeartMate II Device at Emory
Jun 27, 2007
Dental and Health Articles - Surgeons at Emory University Hospital recently implanted Georgia's first HeartMate II ventricular assist device (VAD) as a form of destination therapy (in place of a donor transplant) for individuals who are not eligible for, or unwilling to undergo, a heart transplant.
Heart-pump pioneers at LDS
Jun 5, 2007
Deseret Morning News - Stanley Roberts was once cardiologist Dr. William Mackie's physician's assistant. Years later, when Roberts' heart was failing, his doctor-friend said he held Roberts together with "baling wire and duct tape."
Heart-Assist Device Gives Culver City Man A Good Quality Of Life
May 28, 2007
Medical News Today - Mark Heiner of Culver City reads books, paints artistically, takes walks and does laundry activities that would be considered routine except for the fact that a four-pound disk implanted in his abdominal cavity is keeping his blood flowing.
Temporary pumps let ailing hearts heal in young patients
Apr 9, 2007
11 News KHOU-TV - See URL video below
New Device May Heal Damaged Hearts
Apr 9, 2007
CBS News - Left Ventricular Assist Devices, Or LVADs, Could Put Patients On The Road To Recovery
1,000 Days on Heart Pump
Apr 5, 2007
XETV FOX 6 - San Diego - 
Fairland Man Benefits From Heart Device
Mar 21, 2007
Barnes-Jewish Hospital - FAIRLAND, Okla. - John Brock's heart failed while looking into the mouth of an open grave.
Breakthrough heart surgery patient recuperating
Mar 17, 2007
SABC News - Nokkie Gerrits is the first man in Africa to receive the Heartmate. The left ventrical assist device is an electrical machine that performs the pumping function of the heart while the patient receives treatment. If the heart recovers enough to start pumping again, the device can be removed.
Single mom to 2 goes through chemo with heart pump
Feb 26, 2007
KHOU Channel 11 - She was seven months pregnant and diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Berkeley Heights womans heart receives boost with new implant
Feb 14, 2007
Summit Independent Press - Delores Treich, 72, of Berkeley Heights was critically-ill when she was transferred from a referring hospital to Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in December. Her heart was functioning at only 5% capacity before she underwent surgery to have the HeartMate II Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implanted. This lifesaving procedure was performed by Margarita T. Camacho, MD, surgical director of Cardiac Transplantation and Assist Devices at the Saint Barnabas Heart Center at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
Ailing County Official Glad To Be Alive, Glad To Be a Gator Fan
Jan 10, 2007
St. Petersburg Times - He had cancer surgery and got a heart device, and through it all, he didn't miss a game.
Medicare Policy Could Boost Thoratec
Jan 3, 2007
Associated Press - A late December Medicare proposal to increase the number of hospitals authorized to implant a specialized mechanical heart device made by Thoratec could significantly expand the market for the company's products, an analyst said Wednesday.
Quebec Man Given New Kind of Mechanical Heart
Dec 13, 2006
CTV.ca - A patient in Montreal has become the first living Canadian without a heartbeat. Last month he was given a brand new mechanical heart that pumps blood continuously using a turbine suspended in a magnetic field.
Life Without a Pulse: Quebec Man Receives Mechanical Heart
Dec 13, 2006
CBC News - "Doctors said they believe the technology will change the way heart patients are treated, providing an alternative to heart transplant surgery."
Seven Years and Still Pumping
Nov 15, 2006
UAB Headline News - BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Sumter, S.C. resident Sherri Selph was 41 in 1994 when first diagnosed with stage-two congestive heart failure. By 1999, her health was diminishing so rapidly that she was diagnosed with end-stage heart disease, and not expected to live beyond six months.
New Pump Can Help Reverse Heart Failure
Nov 1, 2006
MSNBC - BOSTON - A device that helps severely damaged hearts pump may be able to do what was once thought impossible— reverse heart failure in people who are weeks away from death, British researchers reported Wednesday.
VADS Help Keep Heart Patients Alive
Mar 12, 2006
ABC7 News.com - San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose - If you saw Grey's Anatomy Sunday night, you're now familiar with Ventricular Assist Devices (VADS) that keep heart transplant patients alive as they wait for a donor heart. A clinical trial is taking place right now at San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) to test the newest form of VADS.
Affairs of the Heart
Oct 1, 2005
MX Magazine - Cover Story - In the medical technology industry, companies that expect to survive must be not only technologically adept, but also robust—able to endure even the most difficult of challenges that can befall a growing corporate entity.
New Lease on Life
Aug 15, 2004
Oakland Tribune - PLEASANTON—ON ITS OWN, there was little chance that the heart of former Chicago fireman James Sheeran would allow him to see his 80th birthday.
UPMC Heart-Pump Implant Its First
Jul 21, 2004
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - John Didion's first heart attack put him on disability eight years ago. His second attack, this past May, was worse.
Utahns Blaze Path in Bionic Body Parts
Nov 23, 2003
Deseret Morning News - Kenny Whitten can run a bulldozer and a backhoe. He cares for the cows on his land in Duncan, Okla., and when he has spare time, he likes to go fishing, hunting and skiing.
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