Man With Fully Artificial Heart Gains New Mobility With Smallest-Ever Portable Power Pack
Charles Okeke Wears the Freedom Driver CBSA groundbreaking new device has given an artificial heart recipient new freedom, replacing the 400-pound machine that kept him tethered to the hospital For two years, Charles Okeke, 43, was just another patient confined to a hospital while awaiting a human heart transplant. Now, he's the country's first test subject for a battery-operated, backpack-sized console, called the Freedom Driver, which will power his artificial heart and allow him to go home for the first time in two years. Charles Okeke, 43, received a heart transplant 10 years ago after suffering a blood clot. After his body rejected the heart in 2008, he had no choice but to spend his days hooked up to a 400-pound machine while surviving off of a "total artificial heart." Although the artificial heart pumps blood just like a human heart, it restricted Okeke from living normally as a husband...