HEALTH
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Approval Recommended for Heart Device: A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel made the recommendation for the Thoratec Laboratories Corp. product, which beats for a failing heart while the patient awaits a transplant. The device takes over all or part of a failed heart’s function for patients who might otherwise die while waiting for a donor heart. The clinical trials of Berkeley-based Thoratec’s device showed that about two-thirds of patients who received the device survived until a transplant was performed.
