The first patient to be fitted with a “total artificial heart” from the French company Carmat has died 75 days after the successful transplant, although his cause of death remains unclear.
The 76-year-old man was fitted with the bioprosthetic organ at Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, Paris on 18 December 2013 after suffering from terminal heart failure and given only a few weeks to live according to the Chicago Tribune.
He was the first patient to be given the bioprosthetic, with three more patients due to be fitted with the device in the coming months as part of the trial, with one month survival considered a success.
Carmat’s artificial heart is designed to help the thousands of people who die each year waiting for a donor heart, and should last up to five years.
