CINCINNATI (WKRC) — A groundbreaking artificial heart technology has saved the life of Michael Herrmann, one of the few patients worldwide to benefit from this innovation while awaiting a heart transplant.
Herrmann’s heart was failing, and his medical team at Ohio’s Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Center warned him that he might not survive through the holidays.
“You’re not going to make it through the holidays—you had like three months, give or take,” Herrmann said.
The technology, known as the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart, replaced Herrmann’s heart for 15 days until he received a transplant. Dr. Robert Dowling, surgical director for The Christ Hospital Heart Transplant Program, explained the device’s function.
“That thing spinning in the middle, we call them pellers; they are like airplane propellers, and they push the blood, and they are there for the right side and the left side, and that little thing that’s spinning around is floating in a magnetic field,” Dowling said..
Herrmann expressed his gratitude for the technology, saying, “You can’t describe how much different it is—I feel normal.”
Dowling noted the significance of the BiVACOR artificial heart, which made Herrmann the fourth patient in the world to use it. “It’s kind of everything that those of us in the field have been waiting for,” he said.
Unlike previous heart pumps or transition devices that were attached to the heart, the BiVACOR device actually replaces it. “And because it only has one moving part, it can last decades,” Dowling said.
Dr. Miriam Freundt, director of the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Christ Hospital, highlighted the potential future applications of the technology. “The type of patients that will need this type of technology in the future are patients that have both sides of the heart failing and no other good option currently for replacement,” Freundt said.
Dr. Greg Egnaczyk, medical director for the advanced heart failure program at Christ Hospital, discussed the risks during the transition period to transplant. “It is that amazing miraculous recovery to seeing how the body will respond to the circulation, so we are really looking at all the other organ systems, how the kidneys will respond, how his brain will respond,” Egnaczyk said.
Herrmann’s response to the transplant has been remarkable. “I haven’t felt normal in decades,” he said.
Since the transplant, Herrmann is doing well and is being closely monitored. Dowling confirmed that he is healing well.
