 His pioneering work led him to be considered around the world as a father of the ventricular assist device.The group, including Pierce, James Donachy and its current chief, Gerson Rosenberg, went on in partnership with Arrow International of Reading, Pennsylvania, to develop the Arrow Lion Heart, an implantable, permanent, left ventricular heart assist system powered by a wearable, external NiCd battery.The pump represented the first successful use of a transcutaneous energy transfer system, eliminating any transcutaneous wire, and the first clinical use of a compliance sac, eliminating the need for a transcutaneous vent.