NEW YORK, June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- By all accounts, Peter...

NEW YORK, June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- By all accounts, Peter Houghton, 69, of England, should be dead. He was near the end of a losing battle with cardiomyopathy in June 2000 when he chose to be treated with the experimental Jarvik 2000(R), a tiny mechanical heart then beginning a clinical trial. He survived. Now entering his eighth year of life-giving support on the assist device, Peter has the tenacity of a cat with nine lives -- and has seen enough high jinx to use up at least a few of them.

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Once, when Peter was shopping in London, a purse-snatcher swiped his heart-control system and battery, which he carried in a camera bag over his shoulder. The system sounded a loud alarm, and the thief dropped it. Peter's natural heart, very weak but still intact thanks to the relatively unobtrusive Jarvik 2000, kept him alive during the emergency. He recovered the battery and controls and restarted his mechanical heart himself. He was unharmed, but surely one life poorer.

Then there was the time Peter's taxi driver attempted to cross a flooded stretch of road. The cab stalled and began floating with the current. As the water rose inside, Peter held his heart-control system and battery up to keep them dry until a young man could wade out and rescue him. That's another life spent. When he arrived home, muddy and bedraggled, his wife was standing at the front door waiting for him. That's another.

Peter has used up a few lives, to be sure, but he's not counting. For him, every day of the last seven years has been what he calls "extra life." And he has campaigned passionately to help people with various kinds of life- extending medical devices adapt to their dependency on technology and make the most of the additional years they are fortunate to have.

Key to Peter's success are his indomitable spirit, his close relationship with his doctors, and his sense of humor through all the close calls and mishaps of his condition. It was his spirit that saved him when he visited a friend in the countryside and the hired driver left with Peter's backup battery still in the car. When his main battery ran down, his natural heart again had to sustain him until the car came back. Peter's close relationship with his cardiologist saved him when he picked up a serious blood-borne infection through a scrape on his leg, and fast treatment with a new antibiotic cured him before the infection lodged in his heart or power cable. And Peter's sense of humor saved him when late one night, he started down the stairs in the dark, tripped over his cat, tumbled down the stairs, and sailed through a plate glass window at the bottom. Peter suffered little more than a few stitches, though no doubt both he and the cat each used up a life that night.

Today, Peter celebrates his seventh anniversary with the Jarvik 2000. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest surviving cardiac patient supported by a mechanical heart without replacement. As he enters his eighth year, his friends at JARVIK HEART, Inc. wish him well, and trust that he has quite a few lives remaining.

Peter Houghton lives in Birmingham, England. He has traveled widely, lecturing and attending scientific meetings about mechanical hearts and other artificial organs, and has published several books, the latest of which is a forthcoming science fiction novel. He was the first patient in the world to receive the Jarvik 2000 heart for permanent use. Mr. Stephen Westaby, his surgeon at the John Radcliff hospital in Oxford, England, and Dr. Adrian Banning, his cardiologist, have been responsible for his follow-up care over the years.

About the Jarvik 2000(R)

The Jarvik 2000 heart is a tiny, battery-powered axial-flow blood pump that is surgically implanted inside the left ventricle of severe heart failure patients. About the size of a C-cell flashlight battery, the Jarvik 2000 can act as a booster pump or sustain the entire blood flow of the body, if necessary. The device uses a pump impeller supported on ceramic bearings. In over 100 patient years of cumulative experience, no Jarvik 2000 pump bearings have failed.

The Jarvik 2000 is approved for investigational use at 40 hospitals in the United States and is CE Mark certified in Europe as both a bridge-to- transplant and lifetime-use treatment option. To date, more than 200 Jarvik 2000 hearts have been implanted by medical centers throughout the United States and in nine foreign countries. The device has sustained patients twice as long as any other rotary mechanical heart.

About JARVIK HEART, INC.

JARVIK HEART, Inc. is a privately held company in New York City that develops miniaturized heart assist devices for the treatment of severe heart failure. Our goal is to restore tens of thousands of patients suffering late- stage heart failure to excellent health. The company, founded in 1988, is located in Manhattan. Robert Jarvik, M.D., inventor of the Jarvik 7 and Jarvik 2000 mechanical hearts, is Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Marilyn vos Savant, columnist for Parade magazine, is Chief Financial Officer. Stuart McConchie, former CEO of HeartWare, Inc. is Vice President, and Leon Hirsch, founder and former Chairman of United States Surgical Corporation, serves on the Board of Directors. For more information please visit http://www.jarvikheart.com/. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040427/NYTU126LOGO" mime-type="application/octet-stream"/> Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040427/NYTU126LOGO
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CONTACT: Robert Greene of JARVIK HEART, Inc., +1-212-397-3911, ext. 10,
[email protected]

Web site: http://www.jarvikheart.com/