A recipient of a donor heart has said that it is quieter than his mechanical heart.
I remember the first artificial heart recipient: In 1982, Seattle dentist Barney Clark became the first human to receive a permanent artificial heart, a device known as the Jarvik 7. It was a really big deal.
And now, this man, 51-year-old Chris Marshall lived away from the hospital with a mechanical heart while waiting for the human donor heart. He was able to leave because of a device called an “ 'experimental portable heart-driver' he carted around in a backpack.”
What great strides we have made in medicine and what great love one has to offer one’s life, one’s heart, to another as he/she departs this Earthly existence.A heart that beats with sounds of extraordinary generosity and compassion.
(S-R archives photo)
Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with Catherine Johnston, an Olympia, Wash., writer who works in hospital administration, write about issues of grief when facing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.
Ask a question: Rebecca and Catherine answer grief questions in their syndicated EndNotes column for McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Email them at endnotescolumn@gmail.com.
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