Fourth Woman, 28, Receives Mini-Jarvik-7 Artificial Heart

MINNEAPOLIS — A 28-year-old woman who became the fourth female to receive a mini-Jarvik-7 artificial heart was in critical condition today in the intensive care unit of Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Doctors said Nicole Christoffersen of Minot, N.D., was able to smile, wiggle her fingers and legs and squeeze the hands of family members.

Dr. Lyle Joyce, the first doctor to install a mini-Jarvik-7 device in a woman, implanted the man-made organ in her chest during a 5 1/2-hour operation Tuesday night.

Christoffersen was not as severely ill as Mary Lund, the first woman to receive an artificial heart transplant at Abbott Northwestern, doctors said. Lund received a human heart 45 days after the initial transplant and died Oct. 14 at 40.

Dr. Marc Pritzker, a cardiologist with the Minnesota Heart Institute, said Christoffersen, who was described as a married housewife with two young sons, will be a candidate for a human heart once her condition stabilizes.

The other two women who had received artificial hearts before Tuesday night’s implant died after receiving human heart transplants.