Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Lou Ellen Didion walks with her husband, John Didion, through the hallways of UPMC Presbyterian. He is the first person to be implanted with a heart pump since Medicare officials approved UPMC to perform the surgery last October. Click photo for larger image.

John Didion's first heart attack put him on disability eight years ago. His second attack, this past May, was worse.

"The left side of my heart was shot," said Didion, 59, of Hampton. Doctors told him the damaged heart couldn't keep him alive much longer and, at 310 pounds, he weighed too much to qualify for a heart transplant.

But he was feeling good yesterday after being discharged from UPMC Presbyterian, where he was implanted with a heart pump on July 2.

The 2 1/2-pound pump is in his upper abdomen to stay, or at least until he can lose enough weight to qualify as a heart transplant candidate. Didion is the first person to be implanted with a heart pump since Medicare officials approved UPMC to perform the surgery last October.

Though it took the hospital longer than expected to identify its first patient, Dr. Robert Kormos, director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's artificial heart and heart transplant programs, said he expects the pace of implantation to pick up. A second patient is scheduled for the implant next month, he said, and a third patient is being evaluated.

Allegheny General Hospital, which participated in the multicenter trial that proved heart pumps could be an alternative to transplants, also is approved for the implant surgery by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Thoratec Corp.'s HeartMate heart pump in 2002, but last year's decision by Medicare to reimburse for the procedure was considered critical to its broad use.

About 5 million Americans suffer from heart failure and as many as 100,000 patients each year might benefit from destination therapy, heart experts say.

About 20 centers across the country are implanting the devices, Kormos said.

Didion said he's down to about 270 pounds now and Kormos said a loss of another 50 or 60 pounds might be enough to get Didion on the transplant list.

Didion, enjoying his La-Z-Boy lounge chair yesterday afternoon, said he expects to be doing the laundry for his wife, Lou Ellen, and eventually will be back on his riding lawn mower. But yesterday, making his way from his room to Kormos' office across the medical center just before his discharge home, Didion found he had to sit and rest a couple of times.

"I'm still getting used to it," he said. The electric pump runs off of a power unit at his home or from a pair of rechargeable batteries that hang from shoulder straps. Didion said he didn't have any second thoughts about the operation because it was clear that without the pump, he wouldn't survive much longer.

"I have two little grandchildren, and I want to see 'em grow up."