Artificial Heart Patient’s Condition Deteriorates

The first recipient of the Penn State artificial heart went into a stupor today and was in critical condition, hours after a human organ found for him was determined to be unacceptable, an official said.

Anthony Mandia, 44, was listed in “critical and unstable” condition, Dr. John Burnside, spokesman for Hershey Medical Center, said at a press conference today.

He said Mandia’s “level of consciousness is fluctuating” and there was an “overall depression of brain function.”

“From moment to moment his condition varies,” Burnside said. “He is at one moment stuporous, which means he is rousable only to pain. The next moment he is responding to his name . . . and is obviously cognizant of what is going on. He has not said anything.”

Doctors believed that spasms in the blood vessels of the brain, similar to those suffered during attacks of migraine, were responsible. During the spasms, the vessels constrict, he said.

Thiamine Lack Suspected

A drug used to regulate blood pressure was discontinued, he said. Doctors also were considering the possibility that Mandia’s deteriorating condition was due to a lack of thiamine because he hadn’t been eating much lately.

“It’s a setback,” Burnside said, adding that the events have “everyone distressed.”

Mandia received the new model artificial heart Friday pending a transplant of a human organ.

The hospital got word at 7 p.m. Monday that a donor heart was en route, but the “heart failed and it was unacceptable,” Burnside said.

Howard Nathan, executive director of the Delaware Valley Transplant Program, which obtained the heart, said it had cellular damage brought about by lack of oxygen. The potential donor had had lung problems and could not get enough air to keep the heart healthy, he said.

Mandia had been reported improving Monday. He ate solid food, sat in a chair and told doctors: “Right now, I’m just looking for a heart. As soon as I get a heart, I’ll be out of here.”