5th Artificial Heart Recipient Is Walking
A retired baker and grandfather of five who was the world’s fifth recipient of a self-contained artificial heart is walking without assistance and said he’s thankful to have a “second chance.”
“Each day I get stronger,” said James Quinn, 51, of West Philadelphia, whose identity had been a secret until a news conference Thursday, one month after his Nov. 5 operation. “I want to get back to my front porch; I want to get back to my grandchildren.”
Doctors at Hahnemann University Hospital, where the three-hour surgery was performed, estimated before his operation that he had as little as a week to live.
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