I wanted to give it 48 hours before I said anything but my cousin-in-law received a total artificial heart on Monday. This will buy time while waiting for a donor heart to be available. She was completely fine before Thanksgiving. Went in for a new irregular heart beat and had an ablation procedure which led to this. Pretty crazy stuff. She's only 46. Two huge tubes come out of her chest and hook up to the machine that pumps her heart. It's very loud. 16 lb Batterie pack only last about 2 hours so this huge air pump will be a part of her life until a heart is available. The family is so thankful for this opportunity to live though it is a different kind of living at 46 than you would expect, someone has to be with her 24/7. She'll remain in the hospital and then move to a rehab center. The longest someone has lived with an artificial heart is 1,512 days, with a transplanted donor heart is 33 years (so far). The first heart transplant was in '67 which lasted 18 days. We've come a long way. About 5,000 heart transplants take place each year worldwide.