Washinton: While waiting for a human heart transplant, Stan Larkin lived 555 days without the organ at all.
To passers-by, the 25-year-old Ypsilanti, a Michigan resident, appeared to be a typical young adult. He enjoyed taking his three toddlers to the park and hanging out with his younger brother, Dominique. What wasn’t obvious was that a gray backpack Larkin carried was what kept him alive. Inside that bag was the power source for an artificial heart pumping in his chest.
Larkin’s real heart was removed from his body in November 2014. It was replaced with a device that allowed Larkin to stay home instead of in a hospital while waiting to receive a transplant.
It finally arrived this year, in May. Now, Larkin is recovering from his procedure at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center. He is scheduled to return home as early as next week. “Most people would be scared to go so long with (an artificial heart), but I just want to tell them that you have to go through the fear, because it helps you,” Larkin said.
“I’m going home so fast after the transplant because it helped me stay healthy before the transplant,” he added. At any given time, there are about 4,000 patients nationwide waiting for human heart transplants, according to the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Some patients with end-stage heart failure may wait months or even years before a suitable donor heart becomes available, said Dr Billy Cohn, a cardiovascular surgeon and director of the Center for Technology and Innovation at the Texas Heart Institute.
