The third patient to receive an artificial Carmat heart implant on 8 April 2015 died on 18 December.
According to the press release issued by the Carmat Company, “this was a case of sudden death due to respiratory arrest during chronic renal failure” and the patient was suffering “from a combination of severe diseases, especially kidney failure already diagnosed prior to implantation of the prosthesis and warranting regular hospital visits”. It was also stated that the heart continued to beat after the patient had died and that “the medical team turned off the prosthetic device on confirmation of the patient’s death”.
In November 2015, the team received authorisation to perform a fourth transplant to finalise the first phase of the clinical trial(cf. Gènéthique du 25 novembre 2015).
It should be remembered that the first two patients who underwent a Carmat heart transplant also died a few months after implantation(cf. Gènéthique du 5 mai 2015).
Jean-Yves Nau (22/12/2015) – Doctissimo (23/12/2015)