PHOTO: First Croat With Artificial Heart Released

With his wife Mila and his new heart, which he calls Fifi and which he drags on a cart, Goran Krstulovic was released from hospital.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – Goran Krstanovic, 41, is living with a regular, almost metronomic heart beat thanks to the first pneumatic machine in Croatian which he received on October 1. Krstanovic calls the cart that  carries the machine Fifi.

- So far Fifi has been very loyal to his master and he is keeping him safe. My condition is good, but expectations can vary. I have two options. The one is that this machine, while it is attached to my heart, will make my heart recover and then the machine will be turned off. The other option, if my heart does not recover to the extent by which I can lead a normal life, is a heart transplant – Krstanovic said. He was released from hospital on Christmas Eve.

Doctors and nurses arrived to send Goran off. If he did not have the cart by his side and wires under his shirt, he would never look like a person who is kept alive by a small cart with two wheels.

‘All I want is recovery in the New Year’ 

He only had good words for the hospital staff that treated him.

- I can say nothing but a big thank you for saving my life. I had no idea the condition was so bad. I was feeling well, but by monitoring my condition they realised how serious it was – Krstanovic said.

He said he only had one wish for the New Year: to recover. He said an old proverb “a healthy man has a hundred wishes, but an ill man has only one”.

Maybe a transplant will not be necessary 

The doctors share his optimism.

Professor Zeljko Sutlic, chief of the cardiac ward in the Dubrava hospital, says he decided for the mechanic heart because Goran was seriously ill. He had an infection of the heart muscle.

- We decided to implant him an artificial heart. He has a chance of having the machine removed and of fully recovering. But if that does not happen, we will put him on the heart transplant list – the surgeon said.

- there is a chance that he recovers and that his heart partially recovers so he might not need the machine. This is the beauty of this assisted artificial circulation. You can give your heart a chance to recover in several months and he can wait for a heart transplant without fear of his condition worsening – he said.

The longest case of a person having a mechanical heart was four years 

Doctor Jozica Sikic, a cardiologist, explained why Goran Krstanovic was moved to the surgical ward.

- He had a heart muscle infection. In some cases the muscle recovers in six months and in some cases it does not. Unfortunately, in his case, the muscle did not recover within six months and the illness progressed, so we could only help him with medication. We established that his heart could not recover with conservative methods – she said.

- The longest case of a person having a mechanical heart was four years, but I’m sure Goran will not have to wait that long. We will know whether his heart has recovered and whether he will be eligible for a heart transplant sooner – Sikic said.

See the photo gallery First Croatian with Artificial Heart Released