1st Total Artificial Heart Patient in Slovenia Discharged from UMC Ljubljana Using the Freedom® Portable Driver
SynCardia Total Artificial Heart was the “Perfect Solution” for Near-Death Patient with Ventricular Septal Defect
SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart, announced today that on Dec. 29, 2011, University Medical Center (UMC) Ljubljana discharged Slovenia’s first Total Artificial Heart patient, 61-year-old Nikola Gašpic, to wait for a matching donor heart at home using the Freedom® portable driver.
“The Total Artificial Heart was the perfect solution to bridge this patient to a transplant because he had a ventricular septal defect (VSD). For VSD, there are no other effective treatments,” said Dr. Ivan Knezevic, Director of the Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at UMC Ljubljana.
Previously healthy, Mr. Gašpic suffered a heart attack that created a hole in his septum (VSD), which is the wall that separates the left and right ventricles of the heart. He was placed on inotropes and implanted with an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), but he continued to deteriorate. To save his life, on Oct. 19, 2011, doctors implanted the Total Artificial Heart as the only suitable treatment option… read more