Boise Man Back Home After Getting New Heart

The tall man in the white sweater at the Boise airport looked more like someone returning from a golf trip than one who survived through a mechanical heart and then a donated one.

After 151 days in a Salt Lake City hospital - 133 of them tethered to a 380-pound machine that kept an artificial heart clanking away inside him - Al Marsden came home Friday. He walked off the plane under his own power, waving to his son, Chris.

“It’s kind of fun to be here. No, it’s really fun to be here,” he said.

The Boise business associate of potato baron J.R. Simplot was first hospitalized for heart problems March 21. He underwent surgery April 12 to replace his failing heart with a mechanical one. He received his human heart Aug. 23.

He never gave up hope. Even when three other heart patients undergoing similar treatment at LDS Hospital died.Marsden said he plans to return to work - slowly. He also intends to spend more time with his friends and family.

And he’ll dedicate a good portion of his time raising public awareness about the need for organ donors and heart research. He can reel off plenty of statistics about the need for organs.

There are 1.5 million people with chronic heart disease every year, he said. There are 50,000 people with heart disease or waiting for a heart transplant every year and there are only 2,000 hearts available.