The Nation - News from Dec. 16, 1986
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The mini-Jarvik heart, designed to keep a patient alive pending a heart transplant, is too large for most women, University of Arizona heart surgeon Jack G. Copeland said. He said that the chest cavity of Betty Shields of Sierra Vista, Ariz., was too small for the device and it compressed the vessels to her heart. Shields died Dec. 4, after eight days on the mini-Jarvik. Copeland said that an experimental alternative is the use of an external heart-assistance device.
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