New Heart, New Perspective Patient Says He’ll Help Others, Spend More Time With Family

The 56-year-old Boise man who received an artificial heart here last week says he feels great and has a new perspective on life.

Alvin Marsden, a well-known Boise developer, said he hopes to spend more time with his family and helping others once he is released from LDS Hospital.

He will remain in the hospital while healing and waiting for a donor human heart.

Marsden met with reporters Thursday, the first time since the artificial heart, CardioWest C-70, was implanted on April 12. His family previously had asked that his name not be disclosed.

Marsden was wheeled from his room in a wheelchair and walked into a conference room followed by the machines powering the heart.

“I’ve got 15,000 projects I want to accomplish,” Marsden told reporters. “I’m looking forward to living a life that is like I haven’t lived before.”

He said he can’t feel any difference between his heart and the artificial one. “I can walk anywhere in the hospital,” he said.

The grandfather of two said he didn’t hesitate to undergo the artificial heart implantation when he learned that was his only chance for survival. “It’s like you’re in a stream drowning and you need to decide if you are going to reach for that branch,” Marsden said. “I reached for the branch.”

Dr. James Long, the lead surgeon, said Marsden’s heart was damaged by attacks over several years and by cardiomyopathy, a deterioration of the heart.

Marsden had only two or three days to live when the artificial heart was implanted as a stopgap measure until a donor heart can be found.

He received the heart in a six-hour operation, the first time in 12 years an artificial heart has been implanted at a Utah hospital. LDS Hospital spokesman Jess Gomez said the implant was the 44th using the C-70.