Oxford - A man given just weeks to live has paid tribute to the medical team who saved his life by giving him the world's first permanent artificial heart. Mr Peter Houghton (61) received the Jarvik 2000 heart, a thumb-sized pump, at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
Mr Houghton, from Birmingham, had the battery-powered device installed in the left ventricle of his heart during a 14-hour operation carried out by an Anglo-American team of surgeons. He has been in intensive care since then to ensure the operation's success. Dr Stephen Westaby, who led the team of surgeons, said the cost and complexity of the pioneering operation meant it would be some years before it became standard practice.
