Swedish Artificial Heart Recipient Dies of Respiratory, Vessel Failure
Swedish businessman Leif Stenberg, the first person outside the United States to receive a permanent artificial heart, died Thursday of respiratory and vascular failure, doctors said.
Stenberg, 53, was the world’s fourth recipient of a permanent American-made Jarvik-7 heart. For many of the 229 days he lived with the device, he had appeared to be recovering more quickly than other recipients.
Dr. Bjarne Semb, the Norwegian surgeon who implanted the heart April 7 at Stockholm’s Karolinska Hospital, said Stenberg’s case still gave “grounds for a certain optimism” about such devices.
Semb said Stenberg, who had suffered a severe stroke in early September, died at 1 a.m. in Karolinska’s thoracic clinic. The surgeon said that, after the stroke, Stenberg had gradually lost consciousness and slipped into a coma.
A controversial figure, Stenberg was dubbed “Mr. X” in Swedish media accounts of various alleged underworld activities.
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