On Feb. 22, Bill
Wohl, a former recipient of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™
Total Artificial Heart, will celebrate 10 years of enjoying life to the
fullest with the donor heart he received at University Medical Center on
Feb. 22, 2000.
“I am so blessed to have survived in 1999”
“It’s pretty amazing,” said Wohl. “If it wasn’t for the SynCardia Total
Artificial Heart and my transplant, my son and daughter wouldn’t have a
father and I wouldn’t be here to enjoy them.”
On Easter Sunday 1999, Wohl went to the emergency room for what he
thought was food poisoning, but doctors discovered he had suffered a
massive heart attack. Wohl was told he needed a heart transplant, but
was too sick to receive one. Over the next six months, Wohl was
hospitalized 17 times. Then, on Sept. 13, 1999, Wohl’s organs began to
shut down. To save his life, doctors implanted the Total
Artificial Heart.
“I am so blessed to have survived in 1999,” said Wohl. “It took a month
after I received the Total Artificial Heart at University Medical Center
for me to wake up from a coma. Rich Smith, Director of the Artificial
Heart Program, told me I was the worst cardiac case in the hospital’s
history.”
Wohl credits his “Triangle Theory” for helping him become healthy enough
to receive his donor heart after 159 days with the Total Artificial
Heart.
“Patients need to sleep better, eat better and exercise more,” said Wohl
“I was only scheduled to go to cardiac rehab once or twice a week, but
by the end of my hospital stay, I was begging to go down there six or
seven times a week. Exercise helped make my body stronger and better
prepared for my transplant.”