“I’m Not Done Living”

When 59-year-old Robert Tools was told that he had only 30 days left to live because of advanced heart failure, he decided to travel from his home in Franklin, Kentucky to Jewish Hospital in Louisville. He had read in Newsweek magazine about the AbioCor® Implantable Replacement Heart, which was being tested by University of Louisville cardiac surgeons Laman Gray and Rob Dowling in partnership with Jewish Hospital. Talking to the surgeons, Robert Tools said, “I’m not done living.”

On July 2, 2001, Drs. Gray and Dowling implanted the world’s first implantable replacement heart into Robert Tools in a landmark surgery at Jewish Hospital. Robert Tools lived for 151 more days, enough time to go fishing, to talk to his children and grandchildren, and to make his peace with the world. Newsweek reporter Anne Underwood called the implantation and Tools’ prolonged survival “one of the most audacious experiments in recent medical history.”

Tom Christerson, the world’s second recipient of the AbioCor Implantable Replacement Heart and the first recipient to return home, lived for 17 months after his surgery, long enough to see the birth of his great granddaughter. Without the AbioCor replacement heart, Christerson, like Tools, had only 30 days to live. Before the implant, Christerson was so weak that only a few steps would leave him gasping for air. Both Tools and Christerson not only prolonged their lives but also improved the quality of their lives because they were able to leave the hospital, and Christerson was able to go home. Reporters asked them, “Was it worth it?” Christerson said, “I’ve been given a second chance at life.” Tools said, “Three months ago, I couldn’t hold my head up. I could hardly walk. I now have a new lease on life.” Tom Christerson’s son, Ken, and daughter, Patti Pryor, said about their father’s prolonged life: “Every day is a gift, it’s a day we absolutely wouldn’t have had.”

Unfortunately, most patients with advanced heart failure cannot say those words. Most heart failure patients must live the last months of their lives confined to cardiac intensive care units in the hospital.

To give other patients like Christerson and Tools first access to life-saving replacement hearts and heart assist devices, the University of Louisville, Jewish Hospital, and Kentucky’s Office for the New Economy, with the support of Senator Mitch McConnell, have joined together to form the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute. According to University of Louisville President James Ramsey, “This project has the potential to be one of the most significant and visionary undertakings in the history of the Louisville Medical Center.”

The Institute will be housed in a new four-story facility on the medical campus of the University of Louisville, a block from Jewish Hospital. Construction will be completed in 2006. In the meantime, the Institute will work on its implementation plan, including the recruitment of researchers to work closely with Drs. Gray and Dowling. The purpose of this document is to present the vision and initial five-year plan for the Institute.