Man With Mechanical Heart Has No Pulse
Posted June 19, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For a man without a pulse, Harry Janssen is full of life.
Janssen recently became the first man in Canada to have a start-of-the-art brand new artificial heart implanted, a move that literally brought him back from the verge of death.
“ Here’s a guy who came in almost dead,” explained heart surgeon Dr. Vivek Rao.
“My liver and kidneys shut down, and I could hardly breathe,” Janssen confirms.
Three weeks ago, congestive heart failure brought Harry dangerously close to expiration. With no donor heart available, only a mechanical heart could save him.
Dr. Rao decided on technology that had never been used before in Canada.
“We wanted to put a device in him that was going to give him five to ten years of good quality of life,” he explains.
The amazing thing about the new artificial heart is that it’s not a pump, so Janssen literally has no pulse and no blood pressure.
“If he was passed out on a lawn somewhere and E.M.S. arrived, they wouldn’t know if he was alive or dead,” adds Dr. Rao.
Despite his lack of vital signs, Harry is once again living with vitality.
“Oh, it feels like I’m human again and new and able to do things, and the doctor says I should be able to golf by August.”
Each mechanical heart costs $65,000 U.S. They’re funded through private donations to the hospital.
