Patients, Families and Medical Team Reunite to Celebrate 20th Anniversary of Artificial Heart Program

WHAT:
Patients, families and the medical staff from The Artificial Heart Program at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute will join together on Tuesday, April 30, to celebrate an amazing medical milestone: 20 years of saving lives.
 
The pioneering Artificial Heart Program at Intermountain started in 1993 when it became the first center in Utah to implant a left ventricular assist device or LVAD. The program has since implanted 572 devices – life-sustaining LVAD heart pumps and total artificial hearts – and is now considered one of the premier artificial heart programs in the nation. Only a small number of hospitals in the U.S. implant total artificial hearts, in which the patient’s heart is removed.
 
Grateful patients and their families will join the program’s medical staff to discuss the impact this technology has had in their lives. Without these devices, these patients would have certainly died.
 
Among the patients attending the reunion is Gail Rumsey, the first patient in the state to have an LVAD implanted in 1993. Twenty years later, he’s doing great. Also attending: a patient who’s been living on an LVAD for 2,534 days. He will set the program’s record of longevity next week.
 
WHEN:
10 am, MDT, Tuesday, April 30, 2013

WHERE:
Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute Lobby
Building 4 on the Intermountain Medical Center campus
5300 South and State Street – Murray (entrance on west side)
 
MEDIA NOTE: Surgical b-roll will be available. All generations of LVAD heart pumps and total artificial hearts in the past 20 years will be on display.