“Put Down the BBQ Ribs, We’ve
Found You a Donor Heart,” Nurse Tells Patient
Ohio Father near Death Gets Second Chance at Life with CardioWest™
temporary Total Artificial Heart
TUCSON, Ariz. (PRWEB / Business Wire EON) October 8, 2008 --
After a six-year battle with heart disease that included numerous
medications, trips to the emergency room and surgery to implant a
pacemaker, 40-year-old Jim Fijalkovich found himself in the Intensive
Care Unit at an Ohio hospital. Both sides of his heart were dying and he
was in desperate need of a transplant.
“I swelled up like a grapefruit because my
heart wasn’t pumping enough blood. My kidneys
and liver had started shutting down,”
explained Jim. “The doctors said my only
options were to receive an immediate heart transplant or, if a matching
donor heart couldn’t be found, a CardioWest™
temporary Total Artificial Heart.”
Doctors implanted Jim with the CardioWest artificial heart on May 26,
2008. After two months of life with the artificial heart, Jim, who was
once hours from death, got the news he’d been
waiting for.
“I had been really good about following the
strict hospital diet, but a buddy of mine called me and offered me
anything I wanted to eat,” said Jim. “I
told him, ‘Heck yeah! Bring me a slab of ribs
from Hot Sauce Williams.’ No sooner did I get
done sucking the meat off the last bone, my nurse runs in and tells me, ‘Put
down the BBQ ribs! We’ve found you a donor
heart!’”
Before his transplant, Jim had been walking three miles a day with his
artificial heart, two on the treadmill and one around the hospital
floor. The artificial heart combined with diet and exercise helped make
him a healthier transplant candidate.
“Before I got transplanted, I was pushing
450-lb ‘Big Blue’
for one or two laps around the hospital each day,”
said Jim. “It was easy, a piece of cake. I
wasn’t even out of breath.”
After his heart transplant, Jim couldn’t wait
to get back on his motorcycle. On Sept. 3, Jim was cleared by his
doctors to take a road trip with his 9-year-old son, Jesse.
“Now we can go back to doing stuff together
like we did before my dad’s heart got sick,”
said Jesse.
“I cannot explain the gift the CardioWest
artificial heart has given me to have more time with my son,”
said Jim. “It saved my life and kept me going
for 59 days while they found me a new heart. Today, I feel like the six
million dollar man.”
Originally designed as a permanent replacement heart, the CardioWest
artificial heart is currently approved as a bridge to human heart
transplant for patients dying from end stage biventricular failure.
The CardioWest artificial heart is the first and only FDA, Health
Canada and CE Mark approved temporary Total Artificial Heart in the
world. There have been more than 750 implants of the CardioWest
artificial heart, accounting for more than 140 patient years of life on
the device.
See the original story at: http://eon.businesswire.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1444944.htm
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