By Bruce Schreiner
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE - A patient who received an AbioCor artificial heart in early May has moved out of intensive care and is breathing on his own, the device's maker said Thursday.

The unnamed patient is in stable condition and has lived more than 60 days with the totally implantable pump, said Abiomed Inc. of Danvers, Mass. Without the experimental surgery, he was given little chance of living 30 days because of congestive heart failure, officials said.

The patient has been taken off a ventilator, is in a transitional care unit at Jewish Hospital and has begun physical therapy, according to a statement by Abiomed.

The patient is one of two people living with softball-sized pump, made of plastic and titanium. Both implants were done at Jewish Hospital.

The other patient, also unnamed, underwent the surgery in late May and is nearing 50 days with the artificial pump inside his chest. He remains in intensive care, a Jewish Hospital spokeswoman said Thursday.

Overall, the experimental device has been implanted in 14 patients. Half of them - including the first two - were performed at Jewish Hospital by a medical team led by Drs. Laman Gray and Rob Dowling.

The first AbioCor recipient, Robert Tools of Franklin, underwent the surgery in July 2001 and lived 151 days before dying from a stroke. Tom Christerson, the second recipient, lived 17 months and was able to return home to Central City in western Kentucky.

Abiomed has government approval for one more AbioCor implant as part of the initial clinical trial.

"We're hoping to do it quite soon," Abiomed vice president Ed Berger said Thursday in a telephone interview.

AbioCor is powered by batteries and has no wires or tubes sticking through the skin, unlike earlier mechanical hearts that were attached to machinery outside the body.

Within the next couple of months, Abiomed plans to seek government approval to begin offering the device on a limited commercial basis, Berger said. The company will request a "humanitarian device exemption," making the AbioCor available for patients too sick for human heart transplants or any other treatments.

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On the Net:

Abiomed Inc.: http://www.abiomed.com