Press releases

Released January 16, 2002
Yale-New Haven Hospital news release

Artificial heart device recordholder gets a new heart at Yale-New Haven Hospital

For more information, call 203-688-2493 or E-mail Mark D'Antonio

Robert "Pete" Kenyon of Darien, Conn., the United States citizen who has lived the longest on a continuous heart-assist device (Novacor LVAS), successfully underwent heart transplant surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital and is scheduled to be sent home Wednesday, January 16, 2002.

The transplant surgery took place at Yale-New Haven Hospital on January 2, 2002, with a surgical team headed by Dr. John Elefteriades, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and a recognized authority in interventions for the failing left ventricle, including coronary bypass and left ventricular aneurysmectomy. The heart transplant procedure took approximately 13 hours to complete.

"The heart transplant surgical procedure for Mr. Kenyon was very challenging for the team because of a variety of factors," said Dr. Elefteriades. "Originally, the LVAS that Mr. Kenyon has implanted three years ago was in need of a new pump, so replacing the pump was our first objective. After replacing the pump, the donor heart became available and we had to decide whether to subject Mr. Kenyon to several hours of additional surgical time. The decision was made at that time to perform the transplant."

The 63-year-old Kenyon was implanted with the Novacor LVAS (left ventricle assist system, created by World Heart Corporation of Ontario, Canada) by a cardiothoracic team headed by Dr. Elefteriades at Yale-New Haven in August, 1998, and this past August, Mr. Kenyon became the United States barometer for longevity survival using the Novacor LVAS. Mr. Kenyon was on World Heart Corporation's Novacor LVAS for a record 1,217 days dating back to its implantation in August of 1998.

Several factors contributed to Mr. Kenyon having a prolonged wait for a donor heart. His blood type and tall stature made finding a perfect match very challenging. Ironically, because of the success of Novacor LVAS, Mr. Kenyon was much healthier than many heart transplant patients and therefore, was placed lower on the transplant priority list. "I wait my turn and in the meantime, the beat goes on," joked Kenyon during his August 9 press conference to announce his survival record.

The prognosis for Mr. Kenyon is favorable long-term. However, Dr. Elefteriades was careful to caution that the physical rehabilitation could be secondary to the stress of the mental recovery that will take place only through the passing of time.

"You have to remember that for the past three years, Mr. Kenyon has become reliant upon hearing that tick-tock that the LVAS pump has provided," said Dr. Elefteriades. "His subconscious has come to rely upon hearing the machine substitute for a beating heart 24 hours a day. Now, with a human heart taking over the task of pumping his blood, he needs to re-establish that subconscious comfort level that the new heart is functioning properly and is doing well. It's something we all take for granted having never relied upon a machine to replace our own heart. For Mr. Kenyon, the security that the LVAS provided subconsciously has been replaced by a human heart, and it will take time to grow comfortable with that."

For more information, please contact Mark D'Antonio at (203) 688-2493.

Coverage:

• New Haven Register
• Hartford Courant
• New York Times
• Washington Post

Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., is a 944-bed not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale University School of Medicine. Yale-New Haven was founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the United States in 1826, and today the hospital complex includes the Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital and the Yale Psychiatric Hospital, with a combined medical staff of about 2,400 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties.

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