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Greater hope for those waiting for transplants!

Knowing it could take a long time to find a suitable donor, 49-year-old Yvan Provencher accepted the fact that a mechanical heart was his only way to survive. With tremendous courage and faith, he received his HeartMate II mechanical heart at the Royal Victoria Hospital in early January this year.

"Mr. Provencher is only the second person in Canada to be fitted with this new technology, said Dr. Renzo Cecere, Surgical Director of the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Program of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). He is now doing well with a long-term device that can help keep him alive".

In addition to the miraculous skills of the MUHC team performing the operation, the HeartMate II, an entirely new generation of mechanical heart, embodies its own long list of miracles. Similar in size and weight to a standard “D” battery, it is significantly smaller than any previous device. It runs on rechargeable batteries, operates silently and drives a continuous flow of blood without pumping. The result is patients experiencing a new lease on life and the miracle of life with no pulse.