Patient Sets World Record for Living with Heart Assist Device

As of July 6, 2007 Peter Houghton set the world record for living with a heart assist device - it had been seven years since his surgery. Peter was 62 years old when his doctors implanted the Jarvik 2000, which is no larger than a "C"-sized battery, into the left ventricle of his failing heart. The surgeon who performed the procedure has completed more than 70 like it, and is currently researching new assist devices that function as bridges to recovery instead of bridges to transplant. Peter said that "just to open the possibility of long term resolution of a previously incurable condition is to me to exercise the gift of God and a little miracle on its own.”

http://www.texasheart.org/AboutUs/News/Lucky7_device_07_06_07.cfm