channel 9 brisbane, page-24

Here is the article, as far as VCR are concerned this article has been generated by the hospital in question and Ventracor are no longer in trials in Australia............so don,t know where this (Bridge to Transplant wording or the 12 patients came from)?

Here is the article, which was forwarded to me...............................


Transplant hopeful beats the homesick blues





12 September 2007

WHILE Michele Duggan anxiously awaits an organ transplant, her new friend "VAD" is helping her feel at home.

Mrs Duggan, 48, from Ferny Hills, suffered a cardiac arrest four months ago but with the aid of the new Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) she can now leave hospital and await her transplant in the comfort of her own home.

She is one of the first in Queensland to use the $80,000 device, which is now available for clinical use after recent trials in Australia and New Zealand.

"I've had the device for 16 weeks (while in hospital) and I was finding towards the last few weeks that I was getting bit stir crazy and in all honesty I was homesick," she said.

"The device gives me a little bit of normality. I'm not back to my real self yet but I can do things like make myself a coffee . . . I'm so grateful I'm alive and grateful to go home."

The small device was inserted into her abdomen and is connected by two tubes -- one links to the ventricle of the heart and the other to blood vessels. It helps pump blood to her major arteries.

Prince Charles Hospital's clinical director of the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Unit, Dr Deborah Meyers, said the device gives patients some "flexibility".

"It spins the blood around the body so it works as a continuous flow pump. "It allows Mrs Duggan to get nourished again and get fit and be in shape for her next procedure," she said.



Cheers dma

P.S. If this looks like there is something missing off the end of this article, it was emailed to me like this.