BackgroundBecause donor hearts were scarce during the 1960’s, finding a method for keeping patients alive while waiting for a donor heart to transplant was necessary. The promise of giving patients a better chance at cardiac recovery prompted Dr. Michael E. DeBakey from the Baylor College of Medicine to pursue research in the total artificial heart (TAH). This endeavor was greatly accelerated with the recruitment of Dr. Domingo Liotta, who was one of the early experts of artificial-heart technology, and the 1964 NHI funding for an artificial-heart program at Baylor (1000th VAD).
Dr. Denton Cooley was a DeBakey’s protege who was chief of staff at the Texas Heart Institute and professor of surgery at Baylor (MWN). When DeBakey began to turn his focus towards Ventricular Assist Devices because he believed that the TAH would take longer to develop, both Cooley and Liotta still believed in the potential of the TAH in supporting humans before a heart transplant (1000th VAD). Thus, they began to develop their own artificial heart and continued to experiment with animals, keeping DeBakey in the dark about their research (MWN). The transplantOn April 4th, 1969, Cooley had to operate on Haskell Karp, a patient with a failing heart, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital (1000th VAD). Karp wanted Cooley to try repairing his heart instead of giving him a transplant. However, on the day of the surgery, during the attempt at remodeling, his heart collapsed. Karp had given prior consent to the implantation of the TAH if the attempt at repairing his heart failed. Thus, Cooley made the decision to use the mechanical heart that he and Liotta had been working on (The TAH as a Bridge). The decision to perform this operation, which can be viewed as a “human trial”, was made without the approval of DeBakey, who was on a trip to the National Institute of Health in Washington at the time and could not be contacted, the NIH, the hospitals, or the FDA. (1000th VAD)
This video shows Cooley's ambition as he publicizes this surgery to show that he is the first to implant the TAH
The ResultDemonstrated that a patient could survive 65 hours on the artificial heart (MWN)
Cooley is celebrated for being the first to successfully implant the total artificial heart. According to Cooley this first transplant had implications on scientific as well as moral, social and ethical and religious viewpoints. Scientific:
Set off a feud between Cooley and DeBakey that lasted 40 years. Cooley's rationaleCooley was an ambitious man who said that he wanted to be the first to implant the artificial heart. He also believed that if DeBakey had learned about their further research in the TAH, he would have stopped them from continuing their experimentations with the TAH (MWN). Cooley said his ultimate reason for working on the TAH and performing the transplant was to further scientific discoveries and advances.
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