STATEMENT:
First Person at UMC To Receive Fully Implantable Heart Device Dies

June 3, 2001
Contact: Kate Jensen, (520) 626-7217
Pager 793-7825

William Mackay, 66, the first person at UMC to receive the Arrow LionHeart (tm) -- a fully implantable mechanical heart assist device - died at approximately 2:00 a.m. Sunday, June 3. Mackay, a resident of Sun Lakes, Ariz., was suffering from congestive heart failure and was the fifth individual in the United States to receive this new device, the first fully implantable left ventricular assist system.

The device was successfully implanted on May 30 by a surgical team led by Jack Copeland, M.D., UMC chief of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. Dr. Copeland said that although the device was functioning properly, Mr. Mackay developed "severe, aggressive pneumonia" which proved impossible to treat.

The LionHeart device differs from the others currently available because it is fully implantable. Existing heart assist devices are powered by external sources with lines or cables that extend from the device through the patient's skin. With the LionHeart device, energy from an external battery is transmitted across the skin via an 8-pound battery pack, carried as a backpack or pulled in a handcart.

The first U.S. implantation of the LionHeart took place of Feb. 28 at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Penn. In addition to UMC and Hershey Medical Center, the other centers participating in the trial for this device are the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Loyola University Medical Center and the University of Iowa Medical Center.

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