Stan Larkin, 25, lived for 555 days without a human heart, and unbelievably, played pickup basketball along the way.
The father of three was diagnosed at 16 years old with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD), which causes irregular heartbeats and puts people at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.
Doctors implanted a defibrillator when he was a teenage, but when both sides of his heart started to fail, it became clear that he needed a transplant. Doctors didn’t think he would live long enough to see one, but after nine years of waiting, Larkin received a new heart two weeks ago.
While Larkin’s life hung in the balance, one surgeon from the University of Michigan Hospital believed that he could live without a human heart until he was actually on the operating table. So, in 2014, Larkin was hooked up to a 418-pound machine called “Big Blue.”
To put it in extreme layman’s terms, it’s a self-regulating air pump. It works by pumping compressed air through two tubes that are attached to two cone-like valves that completely replace both ventricles. The hefty machine regulates this airflow. The downside is that “Big Blue” is the size of a washing machine, so patients such as Larkin are essentially bedridden in the hospital where the machine resides. (Washington Post)
About seven months later, SynCardia Freedom Total Artificial Heart came out with a 13.5-pound portable device that Larkin could carry around in a backpack. He did that and more, with clearance from his doctors, of course.
Larkin played in a few pickup basketball games, noting that the device had to replaced multiple times because it wasn’t built for the sport.
“I enjoyed the backpack,” he said at a news conference. “It brought my life back.”
As medicine keeps advancing, so does the human spirit.
