First patient with artificial heart implant in Slovakia

An artificial heart has been implanted to a patient for the first time in this region, TASR reported on Tuesday. A 47-year-old patient, who had been waiting for a donated heart, underwent the three-hour surgical operation at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NUSCH) in Bratislava on November 1 and since November 15 has been recovering at a regular inpatient department. "Waiting for a suitable donor, the patient was in a critical condition. Following careful preparations we decided to give him an artificial heart. Despite training the entire team, we didn't know how such a challenging operation would end up," stated NUSCH head cardiosurgeon Michal Hulman at a press conference earlier in the day. The patient will remain on the transplant waiting list, but he'll be capable of living a near-normal life. According to NUSCH head Mongi Msolly, this is the 1,741st patient in the world that has been received a SynCardia Total Artificial Heart (TAH) implant. Msolly added that the purchase of the necessary hardware cost €120,000 and the patient's hospital stay cost around €15,000, all of which is covered by the health insurance company.