Haydon Stable After Doctors Stem Bleeding Inside Chest

Surgeons on Saturday closed a pencil-lead-thin opening inside the chest of Murray P. Haydon, stemming the bleeding that had plagued the world’s third artificial heart patient for several days, a spokesman said.

Haydon, 58, was returned to his room after the 90-minute operation, and was listed in critical but stable condition, as he had been since receiving the mechanical heart 14 days earlier, said Bob Irvine, a Humana Inc. spokesman.

Doctors at Humana Hospital Audubon had discovered an accumulation of blood in Haydon’s left chest on Tuesday, and decided to open his chest to repair the problem when the blood pooling increased Saturday, Irvine said.

The bleeding apparently began when thin plastic catheters, used for monitoring blood pressure, were pulled out of the major arteries and veins connected to the artificial heart.

Dr. Zahi Masri, a Humana Heart Institute surgeon, on Saturday noted that Haydon’s breathing sounded muffled, indicating fluid accumulation in the chest cavity, Irvine said.

Masri called Dr. William C. DeVries, who implanted the artificial heart, and “the surgery decision was then made and was based on the continued bleeding over the last couple of days,” Irvine said.

“Dr. DeVries was able to locate the source of the bleeding right away,” he said. DeVries sutured the wound and stopped the bleeding, Irvine said.

Internal bleeding also was a problem for the two other recipients of permanent artificial hearts.