Third recipient of a fully self-contained artificial heart dies

<br>HOUSTON (AP) _ The third man to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart died Friday of complications from a stroke. <br><br>Bobby Harrison, who received the implant in a six-hour procedure

Saturday, February 16th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HOUSTON (AP) _ The third man to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart died Friday of complications from a stroke.

Bobby Harrison, who received the implant in a six-hour procedure on Sept. 26, suffered the stroke on Feb. 1.

``Mr. Harrison was a very brave man,'' O.H. Frazier, chief of cardiopulmonary transplantation at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, said in a written statement.

``Complications in such a patient are frequently unavoidable, despite our best efforts,'' Frazier said. ``Because of his willingness to be part of a new frontier of research, he provided us with new information that will potentially contribute to the saving of lives in the not too distant future.''

Harrison, 69, was the world's third recipient of the experimental, manmade pump known as the AbioCor. Six people have received the device, and four have died. The AbioCor is manufactured by Abiomed in Danvers, Mass.

The grapefruit-size AbioCor is fully enclosed in the chest, with an internal battery that is recharged through the skin, with no wires sticking out.

Harrison made an emotional statement to the media last month in support of the mechanical heart.

``If anybody has the chance to get this heart, I have one thing to tell them: Go for it,'' he said.