Artificial Heart.

[magdanguyen]

My boyfriend is having a heart disease from birth, he is 19. But now, it has been getting worse, since sometimes his arm gets numbed, his heart hurts, and sometimes, he has difficulties with breathing (it's like he has to breathe stronger and deeper, in order to help his heart beats).
And till now, it was for sure, that he cannot live longer than 7 years more (it means no longer than 26 years olds).

But, yesterday, his doctor said that there is a possibility of keeping him alive forever (i mean, until he dies - normally.) by transplanting artificial heart. I don't know why, but until now, I just knew that artificial heart can help the patient not to suffer, but it can not cure the disease absolutely. The doctor said that in his case, there is a possibility of living (succeeding) - it's 50%. But the other 50% is that he will die immediately.

So, I'm writing to ask for help. What should we do?

[ed34]

If the idea is a mechanical device to allow the heart to repair, it sounds like an assist device which is a small pump placed in the left ventricle. Each time the heart squeezes, the powerful pump pushes blood out of the left ventricle assisting the heart. This gives it much less work and may enable the heart to be relaxed enough to initiate repair. However, I would want a backup plan in motion if it was me, especially with a 50% risk factor. This is incredibly high.

[grendslori]

For the life of me, I don't understand why they aren't considering the heart transplant for your boyfriend. My daughter was in the same situation at that age and they did her transplant when she was 22. It has been 11 years since she was transplanted. It hasn't been an easy road; as I write this she is in the hospital fighting a bad rejection and possible coronary artery disease which is fatal. The longer your boyfriend puts off help, the harder it will be for him to have a total recovery and that is something you must take into consideration. Based on what you are writing, he is getting much worse; it was the same with my daughter and the pain is hard to live with 24/7. Why don't you consider being evaluated by a transplant team?

[kay2486]

go with your instincts, my younger sister was born with a murmur and a leaky valve in left ventrical, my parents had a choice of have an operation and she'll be fine or if she doesn't she'll die from heart failure within 7 months, she had the operation and is fine she was only in hospital for 10 days, two weeks later she was back doing gymnastics, there are risks in all operations even minor ones

if it were my boyfriend and knew he'd live for only seven years i'd have to make it the best 7 years of his life, but he'll only get weaker and weaker, id want my boyf to have the operation and have a better chance of life, could you look after him til he goes that would be an awful thing for you to watch wouldn't it, it's risk you have to take but it's only your choice im just giving my opinion, i hope you mke the right one and keep in touch please

[magdanguyen]

The doctor just said that his case is a little different from the others. Normally, the Total Artificial Heart helps the patient to survive for some time without pain (because as I know, this heart disease is very painful), but does not lengthen patient's life. Here, in his case, the Total Artificial Heart can repair his heart forever. The only problem is just that the possibility of success is 50% and of failure is 50%.

I have a question, is it possible to transplant a natural donor's heart? Will it be the good way out when it comes to this heart disease? Because, as being his girlfriend, I am very very scared. Doctors said that he will live for only 7 years more. However, even now, I can see symptoms of the disease getting worse and worse.

[ed34]

Sometimes Doctors refer artificial hearts as being ventricle assist devices which are put inside the chambers of the heart to assist the pumping. The good thing with this is that you keep the original heart and the heart rate can still change, which I don't believe a mechanical heart can. Mechanical hearts have been used to keep a patient alive until a donor is hopefully found. I know there has been a lot of research in artificial hearts in the US and Japan, using animal tissue. I thought they were targeted for entering FDA approvals in 2011. I did have a friend in hospital who wore a battery pump outside his body while his own heart recovered. His heart was stopped and the pump did all the work. However, it sounds more like a permanent fixture being mentioned by your Doctor. Is there a reason they can't do a standard heart transplant? due to his age I would have thought he would be given priority.