Emory Healthcare cardiothoracic surgeon creates total artificial heart for young patient born with rare condition

ATLANTA - 19-year-old Andrew Miles was born with aortic stenosis. The rare heart condition causes the aortic valve to narrow, restricting blood flow to the heart and ultimately causing it to fail. A week after his high school graduation, Miles was urgently transferred to a hospital in Atlanta from Savannah. His heart was failing.

"There was nothing they could do for him. He was on life support. And so, they got a hold of Emory," says Amy Brigdon, Miles' mother.

Mani Daneshmand, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon at Emory Healthcare and associate professor of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, decided to take on Miles' case. Daneshmand specializes in treatments for advanced heart failure including inventing new innovative therapies through the use of mechanical circulatory support.

"He had significant antibodies in his blood that prevented him from being eligible to get a heart transplant. And on top of that, both his right and left ventricles had failed," explains Daneshmand.

With his condition being critical, Daneshmand decided to treat Miles with a procedure called Double VAD (ventricular assist device), which he invented during his time at Duke Medical Center. The non-conventional therapy replaces the heart using two LVAD pumps (left ventricular assist device) to create a total artificial heart. "This is not a standard therapy. There was a lot of risk involved. But when faced with the risk of possible death, Andrew really chose to fight and try to live."

Miles is now the second person in the U.S. to live outside a hospital with this type of total artificial heart, according to Daneshmand. He hopes to be able to get a heart transplant one day but for now, he is happy to be living life as a teenager.