First heart patients implanted with next-generation mechanical heart pump

"Three patients at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center were among the first in the United States to be implanted with a next-generation artificial heart pump called the DuraHeart Left-Ventricular Assist System. The surgeries took place earlier this year. New York-Presbyterian/Columbia is one of only three centers in the U.S. currently enrolling patients in a clinical trial studying the device. The DuraHeart is designed to sustain patients with severe left-ventricular heart failure while they wait for a heart transplant. Without intervention, they are at risk of death"