Cook surviving on artificial heart saved with donor heart in first-ever UCSF transplant

"Generally, patients who need a total artificial heart don't have a lot of options. We're usually trying to get the patient to transplant, but they're too sick to wait for a donor organ to become available. So, we put the total artificial heart in as a bridge to the transplant."

"By then it was end-stage heart failure, so they had to do something fast. I had to make a decision to either get the artificial heart or I just wait and die."

"The actual pump inside the patient is very reliable and durable. My longest patient on a total artificial heart is about a little over two years."

Martell Taylor, a single father of three, was diagnosed with end-stage congestive heart failure after initially experiencing weakness and fatigue while working as a cook. Facing imminent death, Taylor underwent an artificial heart implant at UCSF in 2022, performed by Dr. Jason Smith and Dr. Amy Fiedler. The artificial heart served as a bridge to transplant, keeping Taylor alive while waiting for a donor organ. Artificial heart implants are rare procedures, with approximately 60 performed nationwide annually. Patients with artificial hearts require external machines carried in backpacks connected via tubes from the chest. Taylor eventually received a human heart transplant, successfully transitioning from the artificial device to a donor organ.

Read at ABC7 San Francisco