China’s first man-made heart

• Source: Global Times
• [01:23 November 26 2009]
• Comments

Although the heart pump has passed its clinical trials, the complete heart device is still undergoing lab tests to guarantee that it is safe for human transplant.

Xiang said the made-in-China artificial heart will be much cheaper than foreign-made ones, which typically cost about 1 million yuan ($146,450) apiece.

Some heart patients questioned the social justice of a life-saving device that will give only the rich a new lease on life.

"I doubt how many ordinary people could afford it," Chen Duo, a 70-year-old retiree from Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, told the Global Times. Chen has had heart trouble since 2006 and was twice hospitalized for treatment.

Lee Wing-kai, chairman of Hong Kong Care for Your Heart, who has suffered from heart disease since 2004, agreed.

"It is for the rich," said Lee, who questioned whether the price is a one-time payment or just a down payment on the continuing cost of heart transplants.

Typically, patients must pay the monthly cost of expensive medications to prevent the body's immune system from rejecting artificial hearts and organ transplants.

The Ministry of Health reported over a half-million sudden deaths from heart failures in China each year, the highest heart attack death rate in the world, the Xinhua News Agency reported earlier this month.

Tang said the effectiveness of man-made hearts can be seen in histories of terminal heart disease patients surviving an additional 7 to 8 years with the aid of external heart pumps.