TUCSON, AZ--(Marketwire - June 02, 2011) - In 1992, Army veteran Margaret Daugherty, then 22, was blessed with a donor heart. Following the transplant, she was able to return to a normal, healthy life for 18½ years. However, in December 2010, Margaret was admitted to the local VA hospital in Lexington, Ky, her donor heart barely functioning. She had received a pacemaker that August, but her condition had continued to deteriorate.
Her doctors had hoped she could undergo a second heart transplant, so she was transferred to a transplant center in Nashville, Tenn., but her liver, kidneys and lungs were failing. With tears in his eyes, Margaret’s cardiologist told her husband, Brian Younglove, that there was nothing more they could do. He recommended they return home and make Margaret comfortable in hospice care.
Not ready to give up, the couple had heard of Total Artificial Hearts being implanted at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center in Richmond for patients who were gravely ill and needed a transplant. “I said, ‘Send her to Richmond and give her a chance,’” said Younglove. “My thought was, put her on the table, and if she dies on the table, she dies fighting.”
Margaret’s doctors contacted Dr. Gundars Katlaps, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Richmond VA for placing a heart pump. He then referred her to VCU due to severe biventricular failure (failure affecting both sides of the heart). She arrived in Richmond on Dec. 17, 2010. “She was in profound heart failure,” said Dr. Vigneshwar Kasirajan, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at VCU. “She could barely speak. We were very concerned about what was going to happen to her kidneys.”
Margaret, who had been on dialysis, had swollen to 220 pounds from her normal 140 pounds due to the excessive fluid building up in her body. Three days after her arrival in Richmond, she was implanted with the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart.
By March, Margaret’s condition had stabilized and she became the first female Total Artificial Heart patient at VCU to be discharged from the hospital using the Freedom® portable driver. She is participating in an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) clinical study of the Freedom driver, the 1st U.S. portable driver designed to power SynCardia’s Total Artificial Heart both inside and outside the hospital.
Margaret is currently waiting for her matching donor heart at the Hospitality House near VCU. Wearing the Freedom driver in the Backpack, she enjoys doing Tai Chi in a nearby park.
“Why stay in the hospital waiting?” she says. “The world is out there waiting to be experienced.”
Read Margaret’s story in Richmond Magazine:
Life Savers: Mechanical Heart Devices are Giving Patients a Chance to Thrive
Watch a slide show/interview with Margaret:
Living with an Artificial Heart
About the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart
SynCardia Systems, Inc. (Tucson, AZ) is the privately-held manufacturer of the world’s first and only FDA, Health Canada and CE approved Total Artificial Heart. Originally used as a permanent replacement heart, the Total is currently approved as a bridge to transplant for people dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure. More than 900 implants account for more than 210 patient years of life.
Similar to a heart transplant, SynCardia’s Total Artificial Heart replaces both failing heart ventricles and the four heart valves. It is the only device that eliminates the symptoms and source of end-stage biventricular failure.
In March 2011, Fast Company magazine ranked SynCardia #20 among the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies “for giving mobility to artificial heart recipients.”
For additional information, please visit: http://www.syncardia.com
or follow SynCardia on Twitter - @SynCardia_News
Media Contact:
Don Isaacs
Vice President of Communications
SynCardia Systems, Inc.
Cell: (520) 955-0660
Email Contact
www.syncardia.com/
