This article deserves review along withthe tech. And since you read my mind and posted the Chris Reeve article I'll return the favor BJ and get this one on to the site.
Artificial Heart Patient Celebrates Anniversary
(Excerpts)
Artificial Heart Patient Celebrates Anniversary
Fri Sep 13, 3:08 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - For Thomas Christerson, the only person living with a self-contained artificial heart, just "taking it easy" is really living.
"I get up, go to coffee, then I come back and just do whatever," he said.
"It's so much easier to live, to breathe," he added. "I'm living through great things in life."
Christerson, 71, on Friday celebrated the first anniversary of his new heart. He is the only surviving patient of seven who have had the heart replacement surgery.
The mechanical heart, called AbioCor and 20 years in development by Abiomed Inc. of Danvers, Massachusetts, gave Christerson not only a chest full of titanium and plastic but a new lease on life and a certain place in history.
"I might have been dead by now. I would have," Christerson said in an interview taped last week by the hospital where the surgery was performed. "I'm no hero. I just want to live."
