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Stan Larkin spent 555 days with a wearable total artificial heart before receiving a heart transplant at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH SYSTEMAt 25, Stan Larkin recently underwent a heart transplant at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center. What makes his story extraordinary is that for 555 days prior to the transplant, he survived without a natural heart, relying on an artificial heart powered by a 1-pound Freedom portable driver carried in a backpack.
Larkin was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) as a teenager, a hereditary heart condition that often affects athletes. His diagnosis came after he collapsed during a basketball game.
When both sides of his heart began to fail, Larkin was placed on the heart transplant waiting list. In December 2014, his diseased heart was removed, and he received a total artificial heart. This device uses two tubes connected to a machine that pumps compressed air into the heart's ventricles, enabling blood to circulate throughout the body.
This illustration depicts the total artificial heart connected to the Freedom portable driver.
SynCardiaPrior to the portable driver's development, patients were confined to hospitals with a 418-pound (190-kilogram) hospital model while awaiting a heart transplant. Larkin became the first Michigan patient to be discharged using the portable device.
The first U.S. patient to receive a portable device was discharged in 2010. The Freedom driver gained FDA approval in 2014, and its manufacturer, SynCardia, reports that over 150 patients globally now use it outside hospital settings.
Doctors were uncertain how Larkin would adapt to the artificial heart in daily life, wearing it around the clock. However, he surpassed their expectations, even engaging in pickup basketball games with the device.
"He truly excelled with the device," stated Larkin's surgeon, Dr. Jonathan Haft, in a press release. "This technology wasn't designed for activities like pickup basketball... Stan pushed its limits."
In May 2016, Larkin no longer needed his artificial heart after receiving a transplant. Two weeks later, he expressed in a press release: "I feel like I could go for a jog right now. I’m incredibly grateful to the donor who made this possible. I hope to meet their family someday and thank them in person."
Stan Larkin's brother, Domonique, was diagnosed with familial cardiomyopathy shortly after his brother. He also received an artificial heart connected to the Freedom driver but underwent a successful heart transplant in January 2015.
