Artificial heart man dies

Doctors praised Mr Tools's "fighting spirit"

Robert Tools, the man who made history by receiving the first fully implantable artificial heart, has died from complications relating to his chronic medical condition.

The 59-year-old American developed abdominal bleeding because of continuing anti-coagulation problems and died on Friday in the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mr Tools had received the artificial heart, the size of a grapefruit, at the hospital on 2 July of this year.

I realize that death is inevitable, but I also realize that if there's an opportunity to extend it, you take it

Robert Tools

Despite predictions that he might only live for as little as one month, he said after the operation that he had no regrets.

"I had a choice to stay home and die or come here and take a chance," the frail-looking former schoolteacher said in an interview six weeks after the implant operation.

"I decided to come here and take a chance. I asked for it because I knew I had no more chances to survive."

It had been a long haul for the man with the new heart.

A diabetes sufferer, he had moved to Kentucky from Colorado five years earlier in the hope of getting an implant.

At the time, he was so weak he could barely cross the street.

Revolutionary design

Mr Tools had said the whirring sound of the device in his chest took some getting used to.

The AbioCor artificial heart, a titanium and plastic device, is self-contained, with internal and external batteries.

The artificial heart is due to go on the market in 2003

No wires or tubes protrude through the skin, which reduces the chance of infection.

Instead, Mr Tools wore battery packs which hung from his shoulders and powered the device inside his body.

One other patient to have received the AbioCor, created by Abiomed Inc. of Massachusetts, died only last week.

The unidentified man died of uncontrolled bleeding within 20 hours of his operation at St Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas.