Electronic Heart given to a patient

On 6th June 2000, Surgeons at a French hospital said they had given a patient an electronic heart in an operation that was only the second of its kind.

The artificial heart, whose battery is implanted in the body and can be recharged without the risk of infection was given to a 70-year-old diabetic with a history of heart disease.

Professor Iradj Gandjbakhch, who headed the surgical team during the operation at Paris's La Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, said the battery implanted behind the abdomen could be re-charged through the skin from a coil outside the body.

The same operation as the one in Paris was carried out for the first time in October when an American patient received a similar heart in Germany.

He added that the apparatus, made by the Arrow firm in the United States, had been tested on animals for seven years before a human was involved.