It has the look of an old-fashioned harness, but a groundbreaking blood-pumping device can add years to the life of heart patients stuck in the queue for a transplant.
Yesterday, surgeons at Queen Mary Hospital, Pok Fu Lam, gave details of the first operation to implant the device in Hong Kong, hailing it as a success and a development that gives hope - and time - to would-be transplant patients.
The recipient was a 31-year-old commercial driver surnamed Tse, diagnosed with acute heart disease in 2003.
Tse spent 51/2 hours under the knife on August 31, as 16 medical staff took part in the delicate operation.
'The operation went off quite smoothly; he was taken off the ventilator 24 hours later since he was in a very good condition,' said Dr Subid Das, consultant and chief of service of the Department of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia at the hospital.
Tse said: 'You don't always get opportunities like this.' He has been making a very rapid recovery and should be fit to be discharged from the hospital soon, doctors say.
The palm-sized ventricular assistance device - HeartMate II LVAD - is a magnetic-field-driven pump connecting the highest point of the heart with the main artery, the aorta, which provides continuous blood flow. Outside the patient's body there is a pack containing two batteries, and there is an external controller.