>> [background music] It started, I'd gotten a pain in each shoulder, went into my chest.
But then the closer I got to home, everything started feeling better and when I got home
it was really good, you know just like before.
And I thought well it can't be a heart attack.
My wife's a crossing guard and she was down on the corner and when she got home on Thursday
evening this had come back again.
So I told her about it and she said you better call the doctor.
>> He came to us in very bad shape.
He was in so called advanced cardiogenic shock because of his severe heart attack.
>> They took some sort of a scope and went back and forth over my heart and she said
there's something wrong here and here what it was there was a hole opened up in the center
of my heart where the two sections join.
And then Dr. Banayosy told me he can't fix it.
So I had to make a choice if I wanted to live I had to go onto this.
>> It is a dramatic event that happens relatively quickly and escalates relatively quickly.
That's why we're fortunate to have some of the new technology's [inaudible] total artificial
hearts.
Prior to, you know, the year 2000 there'd be no other options.
He'd never even have shown up here.
But now we have some other options for these relatively quickly advancing states where
we can take care of a lot of people and actually get them on to like I said the next sort of
steps.
>> Here it is.
Now this is powered off of the wall socket and two onboard batteries here.
And if you want to go somewhere there's a plug on the side which you unplug and then
it automatically goes to the batteries and you've got to keep an eye on the time, you
know how long it's been on those batteries.
>> I mean there's a lot of support, from families, from other caregivers out there, that's required
for somebody to have a device like this and go home with it.
It's not just the patient.
It has to be 24/7 able to get help, able to troubleshoot, able to take care of other things.
>> Well right now the total artificial heart is only a bridge to transplant.
It's not used as what we call a destination device, meaning that that is all the patient
gets.
He goes home and this is his final support.
So right now everybody who gets a total artificial heart is a transplant candidate.
>> They said that there isn't anything more they can do for me here except give me a place
to sleep [inaudible].
They said you might as well, if you, you know, want to, go home and wait there and we'll
call you so I liked that idea.
>> The smaller driver allows the patient to go home.
That per se is improving the psychological feelings of the patient, improves the quality
of life of the patient.
>> It's been five months since I saw the house.
You miss the atmosphere, you know, the place, the people, everything.
I was out and around walking all the time in the neighborhood and stuff and I knew all
those people.
[applause]
>> The technology the last couple of years has advanced, you know, just incredibly quickly.
We have more devices, better devices and they keep coming and it's not the end.
His artificial heart isn't the last iteration of this device by any stretch of the imagination.
>> You got this.
>> I just want to thank them for all the help and caring and everything.
They were all good to me.
I can't say enough good about it.
That'd be about it.
[laughter] [music]
[ Silence ]