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Jul 9, 2008 8:27 am US/Eastern
Boy Owes Life To Experimental 'Berlin Heart'
Device Used In Europe But Not Yet Approved By FDA; 8-Year-Old Blake Busmire Isn't Complaining
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Blake Busmire is alive because of the Berlin Heart, a device that acts like a ventricle while he waits for a transplant.
CBS
An experimental heart device has saved a young boy's life at a hospital in New York City.
Faced with complete heart failure, the child is one of only a handful of patients in the nation to receive the device that keeps his heart pumping, reported CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.
"I'm a lucky kid," Blake Busmire said.
The 8-year-old feels so fortunate for a reason.
"This is a Berlin heart and it has four tubes that help my heart," Busmire said.
Busmire has a rare form of muscular dystrophy, diagnosed a little more than two months ago. It caused his heart to fail completely. He owes his life to an experimental device called the Berlin heart. It is keeping him alive while he waits for a transplant.
"It's been a roller coaster ride, it's scary," his mother, Regina Busmire, said. "We never in a million years expected anything like this to happen."
Because both sides of Blake's heart failed, he was bed-bound with fluid around his lungs and abdomen. He was airlifted to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he received the lifesaving device.
"It functions like one of the heart's ventricles - the pumping chambers of the heart - and completely takes over the cardiac function on both sides of the heart," said Dr. Umesh Joashi.
The Berlin heart has been used in Europe for several years, but has yet to receive Food and Drug Administration approval in the U.S. Even though it's not FDA approved, the cost of the device is usually covered by health insurance and Medicare.
Doctors must apply for "compassionate" use of the device in severe cases like Blake Busmire's.
"There's serious risks associated with these devices," Dr. Joashi said. "Without it Blake wouldn't be here now, but there's a risk of stroke, of bleeding, of infection."
But Blake is not concerned. He's focused on getting back to the business of being a healthy kid.
The Berlin heart is not a permanent solution. It's used most often for patients on a heart transplant list awaiting a compatible donor.
But in the meantime, the device has given Blake life and hope.
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