SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Miniature Heart Pump

A 62-year-old man whose body was rejecting a transplanted heart recently became the first person implanted with an experimental heart pump the size of a pencil eraser.

The Hemopump cardiac assist device saved the patient’s life by keeping his heart beating while doctors used powerful drugs to stop his body from rejecting the transplanted organ.

Once the device receives federal approval for widespread use, it potentially could save the lives of 150,000 people each year, Hemopump inventor Dr. Richard Wampler said last week in Houston. More than 80% of those people now die, said Wampler, who is an official of the manufacturer, Nimbus Medical Inc. of Rancho Cordova, Calif.

The device will primarily benefit victims of acute heart failure and people awaiting human heart transplants, Wampler said.

The tiny pump was implanted in the left ventricle, or main pumping chamber, of the Colorado man’s heart April 26, and was removed two days later.

“Miraculous is a strong word, but that’s about what it is,” said Dr. O. Howard Frazier, director of the cardiac transplant program at Texas Heart Institute. “He (the patient) is in the game. He was out of the game a week ago--totally out--and he’s only back in it because of this device.”