Kevin K. Cheng

Last updated
Kevin K. Cheng
Education Kaohsiung Medical College
Known forDesign of the Phoenix heart
Medical career
Professiondentist
Institutions

Kevin K. Cheng (born around 1945), developed the Phoenix total artificial heart, first used in a human in 1985 in an emergency in a person whose donor heart was being acutely rejected. Cheng was a dentist by profession and the Phoenix heart he designed was originally developed to be implanted into a young cow. The recipient Thomas Creighton, who was dying from a failing heart, survived the artificial heart operation and 11 hours later a human heart was transplanted. The cause of death less than two days afterwards was not due to the artificial heart.

Contents

Cheng had fled China with his family at the age of four, spent his childhood and completed his education in Taiwan and then settled in the United States. His past time of designing artificial hearts took him from Texas to Phoenix, where he developed artificial hearts for transplantation into cows.

Early life

Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Medical University.jpg
Kaohsiung Medical University

Kevin K. Cheng fled China on a boat with his parents at the age of four. They settled in Taiwan, where he became skilled at drawing, building models and then engineering. He gained admission to study medicine at Kaohsiung Medical College, where dental students and medical students received the same initial education and later in 1973, he moved to Houston, United States. After a few months he found a job as a research associate in the cardiovascular laboratory at the Texas Heart Institute and over the next 30 months he designed and built 36 artificial hearts that were implanted in calves. [1]

In 1978, Cheng decided to go to the University of Texas Dental School in Houston and subsequently moved to the University of Texas at Galveston to work with people with cancer. The whole time, he continued to build and redesign artificial hearts. [1]

The Phoenix total artificial heart

Failing to gain support from the surgeons he spoke to and being unsuccessful in his application for a grant from the National Institutes of Health, he by chance met technician Jon Austin at St. Luke's Hospital, Phoenix and feeling that there may be hope of progressing with his artificial hearts, Cheng moved to Phoenix and opened a general and reconstructive dental clinic. After being introduced to heart surgeon Cecil Vaughn and veterinarian Peter Bates in 1983, Cheng was given space in a laboratory to carry out experimental work. In 1984, Vaughn and Cheng implanted the first Phoenix artificial heart in a calf and subsequently performed another three such procedures, with the longest survival of more than 12 hours. [1]

The next planned artificial heart procedure in 1985, was however cancelled when Vaughn was called to an emergency. Then, on 6 March 1985, Cheng was informed that his artificial heart was needed in desperation by 33-year old Thomas Creighton, 120 miles away at the University of Arizona Medical Center. Creighton had been transplanted a human heart the previous day, by surgeon Jack Copeland, but the donor heart failed. [1] [2] [3]

Cheng, Vaughn and a technician transported the artificial heart via helicopter and chartered jet, from Phoenix airport to the University of Arizona hospital, Phoenix, where Copeland and his team awaited them. Copeland and Vaughn performed the operation and successfully connected the artificial heart in place, leaving the chest open as the Phoenix heart, originally designed to fit into a calf chest, was too big for the chest to be closed after surgery. Sterile wrapping was used to protect the area. Cheng later recounted the time following the procedure and when the Phoenix heart began beating; “Every minute was like a year...I prayed the whole time”. A few hours later, a blood leak from the anastomosis site needed interim surgery with a teflon cuff. 11 hours later, a human heart was used to replace the Phoenix heart. Cheng recalled that upon examination of the Phoenix heart, after its removal from Creighton's chest, showed no evidence of damage with blood clots. The whole episode became a topic of discussion with the FDA. [1] [4] [5]

In 2006, Vaughn published a fictional book The Phoenix Heart, based on the Phoenix artificial heart implantation of 1985, in which he quotes; "There once was a man who had four hearts in three days, and the only one that worked was artificial". [6]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William DeVries</span> American physician

William Castle DeVries is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, mainly known for the first transplant of a TAH using the Jarvik-7 model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artificial heart</span> Mechanical device which replaces the heart

An artificial heart is an artificial organ device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to complete heart transplantation surgery, but research is ongoing to develop a device that could permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant is unavailable or not viable. As of December 2023, there are two commercially available full artificial heart devices; in both cases, they are for temporary use, of less than a year, for total heart failure patients awaiting a human heart to be transplanted into their bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denton Cooley</span> American heart and cardiothoracic surgeon (1920–2016)

Denton Arthur Cooley was an American cardiothoracic surgeon famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart. Cooley was also the founder and surgeon in-chief of The Texas Heart Institute, chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at clinical partner Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery at Texas Children's Hospital and a clinical professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiac surgery</span> Type of surgery performed on the heart

Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease ; to correct congenital heart disease; or to treat valvular heart disease from various causes, including endocarditis, rheumatic heart disease, and atherosclerosis. It also includes heart transplantation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventricular assist device</span> Medical device to assist or replace a heart

A ventricular assist device (VAD) is an electromechanical device that provides support for cardiac circulation, which is used either to partially or to completely replace the function of a failing heart. VADs can be used in patients with acute or chronic heart failure, which can occur due to a variety of reasons.

Carlos Manuel Chávez is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon best known for his participation in the first-ever human heart transplant. He was also the first surgeon to perform a coronary artery bypass, during 1972 in Mississippi, United States, and Monterrey, Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O. H. Frazier</span> American physician

O. H. "Bud" Frazier is a heart surgeon and director of cardiovascular surgery research at the Texas Heart Institute (THI), best known for his work in mechanical circulatory support (MCS) of failing hearts using left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and total artificial hearts (TAH).

Adrian Kantrowitz was an American cardiac surgeon whose team performed the world's second heart transplant attempt at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York on December 6, 1967. The infant lived for only six hours. At a press conference afterwards, Kantrowitz emphasized that he considered the operation to have been a failure.

The Texas Heart Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization that is improving cardiovascular health through trailblazing research, thought leadership, education, and patient care to forge a better future for those with cardiovascular disease—a future with an increased focus on preventive cardiology.

Transplantable organs and tissues may refer to both organs and tissues that are relatively often transplanted, as well as organs and tissues which are relatively seldom transplanted. In addition to this it may also refer to possible-transplants which are still in the experimental stage.

Norman Edward Shumway was a pioneer of heart surgery at Stanford University. He was the 67th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the first to perform an adult human to human heart transplantation in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heart transplantation</span> Surgical transplant procedure

A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. As of 2018, the most common procedure is to take a functioning heart, with or without both lungs, from a recently deceased organ donor and implant it into the patient. The patient's own heart is either removed and replaced with the donor heart or, much less commonly, the recipient's diseased heart is left in place to support the donor heart.

Charles D Fraser, Jr. is the medical director and surgeon of the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease at Dell Children's Medical Center. Formerly, Fraser was chief of congenital heart surgery and cardiac surgeon-in-charge at Texas Children's Hospital, the nation's largest pediatric hospital, served as chief of the Congenital Heart Surgery Division at Baylor College of Medicine, and director of the Adult Congenital Heart Surgery Program at the Texas Heart Institute.

Gilles Dreyfus is a French cardiac surgeon.

Donald Nixon Ross, FRCS was a South African-born British thoracic surgeon who was a pioneer of cardiac surgery and led the team that carried out the first heart transplantation in the United Kingdom in 1968. He developed the pulmonary autograft, known as the Ross procedure, for treatment of aortic valve disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CHI St. Luke's Health</span>

CHI St. Luke's Health is a health system located in the Greater Houston area. It is a part of one of the largest health systems and the second largest faith-based health system in the United States, Catholic Health Initiatives. CHI St. Luke's Health's facilities have been recognized as some of the best in the nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. K. Sen (surgeon)</span>

Prafulla Kumar Sen MD was an Indian vascular and cardiothoracic surgeon, who led the world's sixth attempt of human heart transplant and India's first in 1968. It dubbed him the fourth surgeon in the world to carry out this operation.

Jack Greene Copeland is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, who has established procedures in heart transplantation including repeat heart transplantation, the implantation of total artificial hearts (TAH) to bridge the time to heart transplant, innovations in left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and the technique of "piggybacking" a second heart in a person, while leaving them the original.

Edward B. Stinson is an American retired cardiothoracic surgeon living in Los Altos, United States, who assisted Norman Shumway in America's first adult human-to-human heart transplantation on 6 January 1968 at Stanford University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Reemtsma</span> American surgeon

Keith Reemtsma was an American transplant surgeon, best known for the cross-species kidney transplantation operation from chimpanzee to human in 1964. With only the early immunosuppressants and no long-term dialysis, the female recipient survived nine months, long enough to return to work.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Altman, Lawrence K.; M.d (1985-03-19). "The Doctor's World; Anguish, Hope, a Moment of Fame: A Heart's Story Is Told". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  2. ↑ The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, Jack G. Copeland, MD , retrieved 25 January 2019
  3. ↑ McKellar, Shelley (2018). Artificial Hearts: The Allure and Ambivalence of a Controversial Medical Technology. JHU Press. ISBN   9781421423555.
  4. ↑ Fox, Renee C. (2017). Spare Parts: Organ Replacement in American Society. Routledge. pp. 120–130. ISBN   9781351488525.
  5. ↑ Hsu, Cheung-HWA (2001). "In Vivo and Clinical Study of Phoenix-7 Total Artificial Heart". Biomedical Engineering: Applications, Basis and Communications. 13 (3): 133–139. doi: 10.4015/S1016237201000170 .
  6. ↑ "The Phoenix Heart by Cy Vaughn (Author)". www.buybooksontheweb.com. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.