NEW YORK, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- A National Institutes of Health program to develop reliable heart assist systems is coming to fruition as the first patient to receive the Jarvik 2000 FlowMaker(R) for lifetime treatment reaches five years of support with the miniature artificial heart. The NIH program goal was to develop innovative heart assist systems that would provide reliable support for more than five years. The program will celebrate its first clinical success this June, when Peter Houghton passes that milestone. Presently, Mr. Houghton is the longest surviving patient in the world continuously supported by any type of artificial heart.
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On April 7th, the inventor of the artificial heart, Dr. Robert Jarvik, will interview Mr. Houghton about his life and experiences as an historic medical pioneer. The program, which will be held at the New York Academy of Medicine, will be open to the public and filmed for the Smithsonian’s “Project Bionics”, a history of the development of artificial organs, produced in collaboration with the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs and NIH’s National Library of Medicine.
Mr. Houghton is a particularly astute observer of the deterioration and suffering experienced by patients dying of congestive heart failure and other terminal diseases. He intimately understands the need for artificial hearts and the high quality of life that is possible with the most advanced technology to date. As a professional psychologist before becoming ill himself, he served as a counselor to patients dying of AIDS and cancer, and wrote a book that he was able to complete only after being saved by the artificial heart, entitled “On Death, Dying, and Not Dying”. His rehabilitation back to nearly normal health is a story of promise for the hundreds of thousands of others who suffer from congestive heart failure, and a demonstration of the NIH program’s contribution to innovation in the field of mechanical circulatory support.
The Jarvik 2000 Flowmaker, Jarvik Heart, Inc.'s successful miniature heart pump, is about the size of a “C” cell battery and is implanted inside the natural heart. In the United States, it is an investigational device used to support patients awaiting heart transplants. In Europe, clinical trials are underway to establish the Jarvik 2000 as a lifetime treatment option. Still under development, the Jarvik 2000 has been applied in more than 100 patients with no failures of the implant, and has successfully sustained and improved the conditions of patients awaiting transplants, as well as those who have chosen the device for lifetime use.
For more information on the Jarvik 2000, please visit http://www.jarvikheart.com/ . The program with Peter Houghton will be held at the New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue at 103th Street, beginning at 8:00 p.m., and is free of charge. To register, please visit the New York Academy of Medicine Web site at http://www.nyam.org/ .
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040427/NYTU126LOGOJarvik Heart, Inc.
CONTACT: Mike Elkins, ext. 24, or Robert Jarvik, MD, ext. 10, both ofJarvik Heart, Inc., +1-212-397-3911