Arkansas Teen Gets Heart Pump
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
A Cabot teenager is recovering well after receiving a heart pump created by a world-renowned surgeon.
Travis Marcus, 14, became the second American recipient of the DeBakey VAD Child. The pump was developed by Dr. Michael DeBakey of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Doctor says Marcus needed the pump after the left side of his heart shut down.
"The alternative for Travis was to be lying in a bed on a heart/lung machine, totally paralyzed on a ventilator, "said Dr. Johnathan Drummond-Webb, a surgeon at Arkansas Childrens Hospital.
The pump will stay in Marcuss chest until he gets a heart transplant. Doctors are hoping that will happen in about a month.
