1st Total Artificial Heart Patient Discharged Home from Sentara Heart Hospital. 63-Year-Old John Martino Looking Forward to Watching His 4 Grandchildren Grow Up.
SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart, announced today that on March 7, Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk, VA, discharged its first Total Artificial Heart patient home using the Freedom® portable driver.
“We expect Mr. Martino to be able to exercise, visit with friends and family, and lead a relatively normal life now that he is home,” said cardiologist Dr. John Herre, medical director of the Sentara Advanced Heart Failure Program.
John Martino, a 63-year-old grandfather of four, is the second patient to be implanted with the Total Artificial Heart at Sentara and the first to be discharged from the hospital to wait for a matching donor heart at home. Sentara’s first patient, who received the Total Artificial Heart on Oct. 26, 2011, was successfully transplanted on Jan. 3, 2012.
“Our goal with Total Artificial Heart patients is to make them as strong and healthy as possible while awaiting a heart transplant,” said Dr. Michael McGrath, a cardiac surgeon at Sentara Heart Hospital. “Replacing the diseased heart with the Total Artificial Heart helps keep the body functioning close to normal”… read more
•View news coverage from Sentara’s press conference
•Read press release from Sentara Heart Hospital