dbdummy

Firstly Tinman, you, your wife and your family are true inspirations. My question: When you first woke up with the SynCardia Heart in place - what were your thoughts?

I am not an expert, but know quite a bit about the syncardia heart and the driver. The driver is the device that pumps air the artificial heart. The syncardia artificial heart itself has no motor inside it - the freedom driver that is carried in a backpack or satchel bag by Tinman is attached to the drive lines that leave his abdomen and sends precise calibrated pulses of air to pump the blood in the heart.

Pietro Zorzetto was on the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart for 1374 days before he got his donor heart. Amazing.

Cheney never had a full Artificial Heart. He had an LVAD which was used as a bridge to transplant. The LVAD is a mechanical pump that helps the weakened ventricle pump blood. There are LVADs and RVADs (left and right) - Cheney's left ventricle needed assistance. Tinman had both ventricles removed, including all four native heart valves...pretty much everything was removed that would have been removed in a heart transplant.