A British man was given an electric heart last week in an operation that could bring hope to hundreds of heart-disease sufferers, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Abel Goodman, a 64-year-old retired film producer who suffered from heart failure, received the implant at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in the first operation of its kind.The electric heart, developed by scientists at the Texas Heart Institute, is battery-operated and unlike heart-assist devices designed to keep patients alive until they receive a transplant, it should work indefinitely.
The Texas Heart Institute was unable to carry out the operation in the United States because the device has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Goodman had been given six months to live and had been ruled too old to receive a transplant.