Tempe man among handful of people to receive total artificial heart

A Tempe man is one of a handful of people around the globe to receive a completely artificial heart.

In August, Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix became the third hospital in the world to implant a BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart . The device is part of an “FDA early feasibility study” with five patients.

Stephan Crudup was one of those recipients.

He had been suffering from severe heart failure and was supported by the device for nearly a month before he successfully received the implant and recovered.

“I’m thriving, surviving, and living better than I was with my sick heart,” Crudup said, according to a Banner Health press release.

Crudup is one of millions of people in the United States with heart failure. Fewer than 6,000 heart transplants are done each year around the world.

Banner Health says “total artificial hearts are used as a bridge-to-transplant for patients with severe heart failure, helping to keep them alive as they await a donor heart.”

The device is titanium and has a blood pump with a single moving part that pumps blood. Its technology uses the same principle as high-speed trains, according to Banner Health.