Filippo’s illness forced him to live in the semi-intensive ward for months; now, thanks to the new lighter artificial heart, the 6-year-old will be able to start moving.
The artificial heart (lighter) for Philip
Filippo is 6 years old and on Christmas day last year he had to attach himself to a very heavy artificial heart, weighing almost 100 kilos, which is transported by trolley and which has its own autonomy of 30 minutes. The size and battery life did not allow the child to move; from December to today, he has been forced to live in the pediatric cardio-surgery department of the Sant’Orsola hospital in Bologna, being able to move and move only a few meters inside the hospital room. Waiting for one day to proceed with an organ transplant, Filippo’s first real turning point came: another artificial heart, but much lighter.
Life in the hospital for myalgia
“A revolution for the quality of life of children with very complex heart diseases who will finally be able to move more freely and, one day, stay in protected environments even outside the hospital”, declared the doctors of the center with reference to the Excor Driving Unit device We are talking about children like Filippo who suffer from myalgia, but also about other medical cases. This artificial heart with advanced technology weighs only 9 kilos and has an autonomy of 12 hours: this is the first use of this new machine in Italy but, as Gateano Gargiulo explained, within his pediatric cardio-surgery unit alone, there are five other children who would need the device, for which an investment of 90,000 euros per patient per year is required.
Possibility of moving: now there is a future for the child
The parents of the child Filippo are, of course, enthusiastic: “We went to the bar to have breakfast with Filippo, his dad and I. Family moments that for most are banal but which for us are extraordinary. The first thing Filippo said coming out of the ward he was: ‘wow!’. It’s great to see him self-reliant and independent, finally the 6-year-old boy he is,” said his mother. “He would like to go to school, because he never went, he turned 6 in semi-intensive care. He would like to play with his two and a half year old brother and his cousin”, added the mother, but what matters is that “now Philip is happy, he can move; the children think of the present, and not of the future”.
