First Romanian with artificial heart gets real transplant

The first Romanian patient with an artificial heart will get a real heart transplant on Thursday at the Cardiovascular Surgery Clinic of Targu Mures; surgery should end around 2pm, announced the clinic's manager Dr. Horatiu Suciu. 

The heart to replace the blood flow regulation device (usually called artificial heart) will be brought by a helicopter from Timisoara. 

The patient, a man aged 44, got the artificial heart one year ago. Dr. Suciu, assisted by doctors Bojan Biocina of Croatia and Peter Branecky of Germany, performed the surgery to place the device inside the left ventricle, relieving the defective heart muscle. 

Back then, the Romanian surgeon explained that the solution was temporary, allowing the survival with severe heart failure until a heart becomes available for transplant. Some patients live with artificial hearts up to six or seven years. Romania introduced the procedure in January 2015, following successes in Germany in 2007 and 2008, and in Croatia in 2008. AGERPRES