Artificial Heart Recipient Dies

The second recipient of the artificial Penn State Heart died today after living for 397 days on the machine, Hershey Medical Center officials announced. His doctor said Robert Cresswell, 49, died of respiratory arrest.

Cresswell received the 1-pound, air-driven pump March 17, 1986. His own diseased heart had been replaced six days earlier with a donor heart, which his body rejected, and he had been waiting for the last year for a compatible human heart.