Man Who Received Self-Contained Artificial Heart Is Back in Hospital

A 51-year-old man who is one of six to receive a self-contained artificial heart has returned to the hospital after three weeks of living in a hotel suite, doctors said Thursday.

James Quinn of Philadelphia is one of only two recipients still living with the AbioCor device humming inside his chest. He was released from the hospital Jan. 14 and had stayed at a nearby hotel with his wife.

But Dr. Louis Samuels said Quinn was readmitted to Hahnemann University Hospital on Feb. 3 with breathing difficulties. He was treated for pneumonia and spent about 10 days on a ventilator.

“It is clear that Mr. Quinn has significant emphysema and pulmonary hypertension, which put him at risk for respiratory complications,” said Samuels, director of the transplant team that performed the operation late last year.

All of the AbioCor patients were dying of heart failure and were too sick to qualify for human heart transplants. The plastic-and-titanium device has an internal battery and controller that are implanted with the heart.

Tom Christerson, 70, is the longest-living recipient of the device. Christerson, of Central City, Ky., has been steadily recovering at a hospital since he received the device Sept. 13.