Wednesday, September 06, 2006  Artificial heart  The New York
Times is reporting that the US Food and Drug Administration
approved the sale of the first fully implantable artificial
heart. Apparently, this device allows the patient to move about
freely for up to two hours at a time. The approval was given
even though the grapefruit-size device was implanted in just 14
patients at four hospitals from 2001 to 2004. All of the
patients, who agreed to receive the heart as an experimental
device, were men, and all have died.  Two died from the implant
operation. A third never regained consciousness, and the rest
survived an average of five months. The longest survivor lived
512 days, when the mechanical heart failed. Did I read that
right? Fourteen patients in a four year period? All who received
the device eventually died? If this was a medication, then it
would be laughed out of the room instead of being approved.  The
company is approved to sell 4,000 a year. But, in all likelihood
will only be about 25-50. The