SEATTLE (AP) — An Alaska man who had been living with a battery-powered artificial heart underwent a successful heart transplant in Seattle.
The Seattle Times reports (http://is.gd/AC97Aq ) 51-year-old Christopher Marshall of Wasilla, Alaska is one of a few heart patients that have been able to leave the hospital while waiting for a new heart by using an artificial one powered by a machine in a backpack.
Usually heart patients have to stay in the hospital while a heart becomes available.
In February, UW surgeons removed Marshall's deeply damaged heart, replacing it with a bulbous polyurethane heart tethered to a portable pneumatic machine.
In a seven-hour surgery Wednesday Marshall got a heart that doesn't need batteries.
Marshall had been an avid outdoorsman until a disease damaged his heart muscle and accelerated his heartbeat.
