A ‘Fired-Up’ Schroeder Back in Apartment

A “fired up” William Schroeder moved out of the hospital Sunday for the second time since his artificial heart implant and was driven to the specially equipped apartment where he hopes to stay until he can return to his Indiana home.

“He just couldn’t wait to get going,” Schroeder’s son, Stan, said after his father was taken to the apartment where he had lived for a month before suffering a second stroke last May. “He was just fired up and ready to go.”

Schroeder, the world’s second recipient of a permanent mechanical heart and the only one to live outside a hospital with the device, wore a green-and-white cap bearing his name and a red heart emblazoned with the numeral 2.

Dr. William DeVries, who has implanted four of the world’s five permanent artificial hearts, including Schroeder’s, stood inside the Humana Hospital Audubon’s main entrance and watched as the family left.

Schroeder waved to about 30 reporters from the terrace of the apartment and, when asked if it was good to be getting out of the hospital again, said only: “Yeah.”

260th Day With Heart

Sunday was Schroeder’s 260th day with the mechanical heart. He has survived longer than any other artificial heart recipient.

Schroeder, 53, was first discharged from the hospital April 6 and lived in the apartment for one month before suffering a stroke, his second since receiving the Jarvik-7 artificial heart Nov. 25. Hospital spokeswoman Donna Hazle said DeVries had noted steady and encouraging improvement since the May 6 stroke.

Sunday’s move came a week after Schroeder made a one-day trip to Jasper, Ind., about two hours from Louisville, where he led a festival parade in his specially equipped van. He also has taken short trips around the Louisville area in recent weeks, including a picnic and visits to a fishing lake and a minor league baseball game.

The director of Humana Heart Institute International, Dr. Allan Lansing, said doctors have not made plans for Schroeder’s permanent return to Jasper. Before that move could be made, his home would have to be modified to accommodate the 323-pound Utahdrive that powers the artificial heart with compressed air, he said.

Murray P. Haydon, 59, the hospital’s other artificial heart patient, remains in the coronary care unit. The Louisville resident underwent the implant Feb. 17 and is improving steadily. No timetable has been established for his discharge, Lansing said.