Intermountain Health’s Pioneering Artificial Heart Program to Celebrate Medical Milestone on Monday with Artificial Heart Patients and Families

WHAT:

Intermountain Health’s pioneering Artificial Heart Program, which started in 1993 to help Utahns who were experiencing heart failure and needed mechanical support to survive, is celebrating a major medical milestone on Monday: 30 years of life-saving care.

On Monday, artificial heart patients (including those who were successfully bridged with artificial heart technology until they could receive a heart transplant), and their families, will join with surgeons and caregivers from the Intermountain Artificial Heart Program to mark this medical milestone.

During the past 30 years, the Intermountain Artificial Heart Program has implanted 464 life-saving artificial heart devices, including 20 total artificial hearts,and has become a national leader in artificial heart technology and care. 

During that time, artificial heart devices implanted by the Intermountain Artificial Heart Program have supported a total of 423 patients for a combined 249,164 days. If those days were converted to years, that would equal 534 years of life-saving support provided by the team.

The Intermountain Artificial Heart Program uses artificial heart devices as a bridge-to-transplant for patients who need transplantation, but a donor heart is not immediately available. These devices help patients heal and recover until a matching donor heart becomes available. Other patients are destination patients, who are ineligible for transplantation, who live with the devices permanently.

The duration record for the Intermountain Artificial Heart Program is held by a patient who has had an artificial heart device for more than 11 years.

WHEN:

3:45 pm, MT, Monday, October 23, 2023

WHERE:

Intermountain Medical Center

Doty Education Auditorium – Building #6

5121 South Cottonwood Street

Murray, UT 84107

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