The Man Who Wears his Heart on his Back

When Matthew Green leaves hospital, the one thing he really mustn’t forget is his rucksack.

The father of one will be carrying part of his new heart in it.


Mr Green, 40, will be the first Briton to be discharged from hospital with a completely artificial heart.
The device in his chest is slightly larger than the organ it replaces and weighs less than six ounces. It delivers blood to the body with the help of a pump that is carried in the rucksack, along with a battery.

Heading home: Mr Green will be able to leave hospital with his family as the heart is powered by a device that is carried in a bag

 Around 900 of the ‘bridge-to-transplant’ devices have been fitted around the world, although Mr Green is the first to receive one in the UK.

He had been in a critical condition after developing a chronic heart condition and no suitable donors could be found. With his health deteriorating fast, doctors at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire decided to fit him with the device in a £100,000 operation. 

Some parts of the Total Artificial Heart have a 50-year working life, although patients are generally expected to use it for around three years – during which it will ‘beat’ more than 200million times.

It is hoped the device will last until a real donor heart is found for Mr Green. The patient said he felt ‘fantastic’ yesterday as he spoke about the new lease of life he has been given

Revolutionary: The Syncardia total artificial heart has been implanted in more than 900 patients around the world
HEART OF THE MATTER
A total artificial replacement for the human heart has been one of the holy grails of modern medicine.

Dr Denton Cooley implanted the first experimental device in Haskell Carp at St Luke's Hospital in Houston in 1969. The patient died three days later.

Following animal testing in the 1970s, the next operation took place in 1982 when the Jarvik 7artificial heart was transplanted into a dentist called Barney Clark. 198 operations followed.

By 2001 the first completely self-contained total artificial heart was implanted in Robert Tools at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville.

And in 2008, Charles Okeke was implanted with the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart, becoming the the first patient to leave hospital with an artificial heart in May 2010.
 

Since then the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart has been used in more than 900 implants in 65 hospitals.

Papworth is the 66th hospital in the world and the first in the UK to be allowed to use the SynCardia artificial heart.

‘I felt so ill before, so now to be feeling so well and full of life is great. I feel very lucky,’ he said. ‘I’m still recovering from my operation so not all of the bones in my chest have healed yet. I struggle to carry it (the rucksack containing the pump and batteries) but I can walk around fine. I needed a trolley to start with.’

He added: ‘It feels very different  – before the operation my heart beat was very weak and I could hardly feel my pulse. Now it’s a very strong heart beat.

‘Two years ago I was cycling nine miles to work and nine miles back every day but by the time I was admitted to hospital I was struggling to walk even a few yards. I am really excited about going home and just being able to do the everyday things that I haven’t been able to do for such a long time - such as playing in the garden with my son and cooking a meal for my family.’

Mr Green, a pharmaceutical consultant who lives with wife Gill and their five-year-old son Dylan in London, was diagnosed with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that can cause arrhythmia, heart failure, and sudden death.

The exact cause of the condition – the second most common reason for sudden death in the young – is unknown, although it appears to be passed on genetically.

With time running out as both chambers of his heart failed, a transplant team led by cardiothoracic surgeon Steven Tsui went to Paris for training.

They were assisted during the six-hour operation on June 9 by Dr Latif Arusoglu, an expert Total Artificial Heart surgeon from Germany, and seven weeks on Mr Green is ready to return home.Another patient received a totally artificial heart at the same hospital back in 1986 but the Jarvik-7 device was removed after two days when a donor was found. It is unlikely the patient could have been discharged anyway because of the bulkiness of the equipment needed at the time.

Mr Tsui said: ‘The beauty of this device is the simplicity of the components which make it so durable.

The moment of alarm

Matthew Green was extolling the virtues of his artificial heart when an alarm went off.
The whine cut through the hubbub of the press conference at Papworth Hospital, after only 90 seconds.

‘If there’s a problem we can easily switch to a back-up console. Primarily heart transplant is still the best, if available, and if there is sufficient time to find a suitable donor heart.

‘Matthew’s condition was deteriorating rapidly and we discussed with him the possibility of receiving this device, because without it he may not have survived the wait for a suitable donor heart.

‘The operation went extremely well and Matthew has made an excellent recovery. I expect him to go home very soon, being able to do a lot more than before the operation, until we can find a suitable donor heart.’

The device, which costs £20,000 a year to maintain, was developed by U.S. firm SynCardia Systems, which is based in Arizona.