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, Ky. to Jewish Hospital in Louisville.  He had read in Newsweek about the AbioCor® Implantable Replacement Heart, which was being tested by University of Louisville cardiac surgeons Laman Gray, M.D. and Rob Dowling, M.D. in partnership with Jewish Hospital and AbioMed.  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 days, enough time to go fishing, to talk to his children and grandchildren and to make his peace with the world. 

Tom Christerson, who also had only 30 days to live, received the world’s AbioCor® Implantable Replacement Heart.  He was the first to return home, living for 17 months after his surgery, long enough to see the birth of his great granddaughter. 

For both Christerson and Tools their lives were not only prolonged, but the quality of their lives improved.  With continued advances in heart research millions of other lives will also be improved.