Christ Hospital Lauds Success Of New Heart Pump
Patient Says New Heart Pump Turned His Life Around
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago area hospital said it's having success with a new heart pump it's testing.
WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger reports 47-year-old Darryl Brooks, of Bellwood, said the new Jarvik 2000 heart pump has turned his life around.
"Since I got the Jarvik, I'm able to walk, stand on my own, climb a few stairs," he said in a video Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn posted on YouTube.
Those were all things he couldn't do before he had the device implanted in January.
Brooks is the first patient there to receive the new device as part of a nationwide trial.
The pump, about the size of a "C" Battery is implanted in the heart's left ventricle, the main pumping chamber. There, it helps the natural functions of the heart.
Dr. Antone Tatooles, a cardiovascular surgeon at Christ, said if the device is successful, it will provide lifelong help for patients with end stage congestive hear failure who are not candidates for a heart transplant.
