Houston Woman Is First To Use New Heart Pump Which Kept Her Alive Until Heart Transplant

Jet, August 7, 2000

A 52-year-old Black Houston woman, who was the first person to have a new type of miniature heart pump successfully implanted to keep blood flowing while doctors searched for a replacement, is back home after having a heart transplant.

Before becoming the first successful human recipient of the miniature heart pump almost three months ago, Lois Spiller said she was so weak that she struggled to talk.

Three weeks after receiving the heart transplant, the retired financial analyst emotionally expressed her gratitude for improved health.

"I'm just real happy to be here today," she said between tears. "I just knew I had to come through this after all the support my family and the doctors had given me."

To help keep her alive until her transplant, Spiller was implanted with the Jarvik 2000 left ventricular assist device on April 10, after her physicians gained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials with the device.

The battery-operated device is about the size of a wine cork and fits directly into the heart's left ventricle. When the heart can no longer pump properly, the tiny turbine pushes oxygenated blood throughout the body.

Spiller, whose history of heart trouble dates back to 1987, received the pump after other measures failed to support her failing heart.