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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 3, 2002
Pumps help end-stage heart failure patients
BERLIN -- Ten patients with end-stage heart failure were successfully treated with implants of mechanical pumps to rest their hearts while drugs helped repair damage, a renowned heart surgeon said Monday.
It took an average of six months on the pump for the hearts to recover, and the patients, once near death, have since returned to work, Sir Magdi Yacoub said at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.
Their hearts have been functioning normally for an average of a year, with one patient reaching four years, Yacoub said.
"I've been around for 35 years, and this is the most exciting thing I've seen in my whole career," said Yacoub, a pioneering heart transplant surgeon. "You have someone who's so sick he is emaciated, then you have him running in the park, playing football or whatever."
Colleagues, while impressed, said it was too early to tell whether the patients have been cured.
"It's going to take more than 10 patients to really see where this fits," said Dr. Sidney Smith, American Heart Association medical director. "But it is a potential solution to a major problem. In the United States alone more than 40,000 patients need transplantation, and there are only 2,500 donor organs."
Yacoub reported results on a study of 15 patients with end-stage heart failure, which means their hearts had almost stopped working. Most were in their 50s or 60s and had suffered from progressive heart failure for many years.
All had enlarged hearts from their disease -- their hearts bulked up to try to compensate for the damage but became less efficient. Other organs also deteriorated.
Yacoub implanted the heart pumps in the chests of the patients and left them there for as long as it took to reverse the heart damage.
The pump, called the HeartMate, takes over the heart's job of pumping blood around the body, giving the heart a chance to shrink back to its proper size and repair itself. The heart continues beating, it just stops pumping blood.
AZUSA, Calif. -- A wildfire spread rapidly across 10,000 acres of national forest, sending thousands of holiday campers fleeing.
About 8,000 campers, hikers and residents had to leave the Angeles National Forest after the fire erupted Sunday afternoon. Several said they were separated from friends and family and had to leave their belongings behind.
"They told us we had 10 seconds to get out, to run," Lisette Cardenas said. "You could see the smoke right behind us."
The fire rapidly spread north on both sides of Highway 39 north of Azusa, about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, said Gail Wright of the U.S. Forest Service.
SWANZEY, N.H. -- Seven people, including at least six members of a family, were killed Monday when their small plane crashed in the woods outside a southwest New Hampshire airport.
Keene Mayor Michael Blastos said the parents, grandparents and two young children had been visiting relatives in nearby Newfane, Vt., and had been staying in Keene.
Witnesses said there was a large fireball and the plane burned up, said Jim Peters of the Federal Aviation Administration.
JERRY LEWIS TELETHON BREAKS RECORDS: The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association received $58.3-million in nationwide pledges through Monday, breaking last year's record of $56.8-million, said telethon spokesman Bob Mackle. The 37th annual broadcast was shown on about 200 television stations.
BLOOD SUPPLY SAFE, OFFICIALS SAY: Public health officials on Monday sought to assure Americans that the blood supply was safe despite concerns that an organ donor who received a transfusion might have transmitted the West Nile virus to four transplant recipients.
"The blood supply is as safe as it's ever been," Trudy Sullivan, an American Red Cross spokeswoman in Washington, said Monday.