Recipient of AbioCor Artificial Heart Dies
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The longest-living recipient of a self-contained artificial heart died after nearly 17 months with the plastic-and-titanium device pumping in his chest.
Tom Christerson was 71 and died at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky. He became the second recipient of the AbioCor artificial heart in a surgery Sept. 13, 2001.
Two other recent recipients of the device remain alive. The artificial heart is powered by batteries.
It has no wires or tubes sticking through the skin, a technological leap from earlier mechanical hearts that were attached to machinery outside the body.
