Artificial Heart Patient Gets Real One From Accident Victim
A 47-year-old man kept alive for four days with an artificial heart received the heart of a traffic accident victim today and was in critical condition at Presbyterian-University Hospital, a hospital spokesman said.
Thomas Gaidosh received the human organ in a 3 1/2-hour operation that began at 2:15 a.m., spokesman Thomas Chakurda said.
“According to Dr. Bartley Griffith, who led the surgical team, the surgery was routine,” Chakurda said.
The heart was obtained from James Randall Riege, a 26-year-old man from West Alexandria, Ohio, who was was fatally injured in a two-car traffic accident Saturday, a spokesman for Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton said.
A jet plane rushed the heart to Pennsylvania, landing at Greater Pittsburgh International Airport at 4 a.m., officials said.
Gaidosh had received a Jarvik-7 artificial heart on Thursday as a stopgap as his own heart failed.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s other artificial heart recipient, Anthony Mandia, remained in critical but stable condition at Hershey Medical Center, 220 miles from Pittsburgh. He also is awaiting a human donor.
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