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Jarvik recipient
awaits heart transplant Posted
5-15-2000 Houston. The first successful recipient of the Jarvik 2000, a heart pump the size of a C battery, is up, walking and doing fine, but continues her wait at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital for a heart transplant. Lois Spiller, 52, a retired financial analyst who suffers from cardiomyopathy, was implanted with the Jarvik 2000 on April 10 at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s after the Food and Drug Administration approved the device for a feasibility study. "This is a major milestone,’’ said Robert Jarvik, MD, president of New York-based Jarvik Heart Inc. "Many people die waiting for a donor heart. If all goes as we hope, [the Jarvik 2000] could be provided within five years to people who need a transplant.’’ The pump, which is being tested as a bridge to transplant, one day may be a permanent solution, he said. Spiller is the first of five patients who will receive the device during the first phase of the study. At present, no other candidates have been identified to receive the pump. Candidates must have end-stage heart disease and be on a transplant waiting list to be eligible, said Tim Myers, manager of clinical research at the Texas Heart Institute. Two other emergency patients who died after the device was used in "a last-ditch effort to save their lives’’ were "exceptions to the protocol,’’ he said. The Jarvik 2000 is a valveless, electrically powered miniature axial flow pump that pushes oxygenated blood throughout the body at a rate of up to 6 liters per minute. "Until a molecular therapy becomes available, these assist devices are the most promising treatment option for heart-failure patients,’’ said Denton A. Cooley, MD, founder, president and surgeon-in-chief at the Texas Heart Institute.
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