No pulse

A CANADIAN is believed to be the only man alive without a pulse after his heart failed and a new silent pump was embedded in his chest to keep blood flowing through his veins.

The Quebec man underwent surgery on November 23 after suffering severe heart failure due to a heart attack months earlier, Ian Popple, a spokesman for McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, said.

Due to other medical conditions, the 65-year-old patient was deemed an unsuitable candidate for a transplant, doctors said.

So, a mechanical heart was implanted as a last resort, as part of ongoing North American clinical trials of the product.

However, an "interesting feature'' of the novel device was that it provided a continuous flow of blood, so the patient had no pulse, said Mr Popple.

Surgeon Renzo Cecere said his patient was "the only individual living in Canada without a pulse and without a measurable blood pressure".

A spokesman for the mechanical heart maker Thoratec said he had not heard of a similar occurrence with some 400 patients who received the implants, about the size of a standard D flashlight battery, in Europe or the United States.

"Everyone who has received one of these has some level of heart muscle contractions,'' he said.

Mr Popple said: "It's kind of a weird concept because if anything happened to him, a car accident or something, and he was lying there on the ground, breathing, but with no pulse, it could upset people.''

"I think he was a bit unnerved himself about having no pulse, but he is very much alive,'' he said.

The patient was expected to be discharged from hospital later today.