14 DAY TRIAL // 24-year-old Stan Larkin, currently residing in the city of Ypsilanti in Michigan, US, is living without a heart. That's right, this man no longer has a heart beating inside his chest. Still, he got to spend Christmas with his family and can lead a fairly normal life.
This is because, having removed the man's heart, specialists at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center fitted him with a portable device designed to pump blood and thus keep the 24-year-old alive until doctors find him a new heart and transplant it into its body.
How the man had his heart replaced with a portable device
In a report detailing this case, University of Michigan Health System researchers explain that Stan Larkin first experienced serious heart trouble in 2007, when he collapsed without warning in the middle of a basketball game.
He was rushed to a local emergency room in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where doctors subjected him to a series of tests. Eventually, he was diagnosed with right ventricular dysplasia, which experts say is a leading case of sudden death in athletes.
Looking to help Stan Larkin's heart keep a steady beat, surgeons fitted the man with a defibrillator. However, towards the end of last year, his condition took a turn for the worse. On November 7, surgeons removed his heart and fitted him with the portable device.
The high-tech artificial heart is now keeping the man alive
As detailed by the specialists handling this case, the portable device that is keeping 24-year-old Stan Larkin alive is known as a SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart. It is basically a mechanical pump that delivers blood to the young man's tissues and organs.
Seeing how this device only weighs about 13 pounds (nearly 6 kilograms), the 24-year-old patient can lead a fairly normal life. As mentioned, he got to spend the holiday season at home with his family, and can even go for walks should he feel like it.
“The device Stan has is the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart, a mechanical pump to bridge him to transplantation,” University of Michigan cardiac surgeon Jonathan Haft, M.D., told the press in an interview concerning this case.
“He’s still listed for a heart transplant and we hope to transplant him as soon as an organ is available. In the meantime he can be at home, he can be functional, and continue to rehabilitate himself so he’s in the best possible shape when his opportunity comes,” he added.
It is estimated that some 5.7 million people in the US are currently struggling with serious heart trouble. Of these individuals, about 10% are experiencing advanced heart failure, which means that, even at rest, they have trouble breathing properly.
Devices such as the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart serve to improve the quality of life of heart disease patients until an organ for transplant becomes available.
If you have a few minutes to spare and feel like having a close look at the portable device that is currently keeping 24-year-old Stan Larkin alive, check out the video below.
