Heart Patient Looks to Holidays

The world’s first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart could be home for Christmas, his doctor said Monday.

Robert Tools, 59, of Franklin, has been gaining strength in the nearly four months since the titanium and plastic pump was implanted in his chest at Jewish Hospital here, but he needs to put on more weight, Dr. Robert Dowling said.

Tools wants to spend Thanksgiving at home, but that may be a bit soon, Dowling said.

“My guess is, he’s probably going to be out having Thanksgiving dinner somewhere other than the hospital,” Dowling said. “But if we can get him home for the Christmas holiday, that would be wonderful. Is it a possibility? Yes. Is it a likelihood? I can’t speculate.”

Tools was given little chance of living 30 days before receiving the AbioCor device July 2. Since then, Tools’ artificial heart has beat tens of millions of times, and he takes strolls in the park, dines at restaurants and has gone fishing, Dowling said.

Tools weighed about 140 pounds at the time of surgery and now is about 150 pounds, the doctor said. He weighed more than 200 pounds before he became ill.