Next generation pump implanted in Oklahoma woman

<br>(Salt Lake City-AP) -- A next-generation heart pump that is smaller and able to be used in children and small adults -- has been implanted in an Oklahoma woman at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. <br><br>43-old

Thursday, January 15th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Salt Lake City-AP) -- A next-generation heart pump that is smaller and able to be used in children and small adults -- has been implanted in an Oklahoma woman at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City.

43-old Cynthia Hill of Lawton received the pump at the Utah hospital.

Hill had not been a candidate for earlier versions of the HeartMate left ventricular assist device because she was too small to accommodate it in her abdomen.

However, the new Thoratec HeartMate Two is only about the size of a D cell battery, while the older version was the size and shape of a canteen.

The operation is only the second since clinical trial of the Heartmate Two began. The first was implanted in Texas.

Hill eventually will have to have a heart transplant. The device is only being tested at this stage as a bridge to transplants.