Please pray about this!!!!!!

As most of you know my wife Paula has heart failure. The doctors have told us she needs a heart transplant. However, there is a new procedure called the heart net. The pic is shown at the left. We discover this just this week and there is a clinical trial right here in Cincinnati. We have already talked with the research center and are waiting to here if Paula is eligible. Please keep this in your prayers, as this may be a way to help her health.

Thanks,

Steve

The article from the Enquirer Follows

Christ tests new heart net

By Peggy O'Farrell
pofarrell@enquirer.com

An experimental device being studied at Christ Hospital aims to strengthen hearts damaged by congestive heart failure.
Doctors at the Mount Auburn hospital are recruiting patients for a clinical trial of Paracor Medical Inc.'s HeartNet device, which one doctor likened to support hose for the heart.
In congestive heart failure, the left ventricle - the heart's main pumping chamber - can no longer pump enough blood to deliver adequate oxygen throughout the body.
The HeartNet, made of a smart alloy mesh, is permanently implanted around the pumping chambers. The mesh gently constricts around the heart, compressing it to help it pump more efficiently, said Eugene Chung, principal investigator for the Lindner Research Center at Christ Hospital.
"It provides a little bit of support for the heart so it doesn't dilate as much," he said.
Doctors hope the device will slow the heart's deterioration, preventing the need for more drastic treatments - including transplant surgery.
Gary Carpenter, 62, of Guilford, Ind., underwent surgery in October to receive the implant. He learned that he had congestive heart failure in 1999 and was forced to retire early from his job driving a truck as he grew weaker.
"I'm feeling a lot better with it," Carpenter said. "I had a lot of breathing problems before I had it in there. I couldn't hardly walk around the house, but now, I'm walking out to the mailbox every day, which is 70, 75 yards from the house."
Doctors showed him a model of the HeartNet shortly before his surgery. "You look at a roast with that string netting on it, that's what it looks like, really," he said.
Chung and surgeon Thomas Ivey are heading up the local arm of the HeartNet trial.
Ivey said the HeartNet could prevent the need for more invasive surgeries.
The device is implanted around the heart through a small incision made under the left breast. Surgeons use a tiny plunger-like device to guide the implant to the heart, then wrap it around.
Earlier versions of the technology required a major incision and were rejected by the Food and Drug Administration.
In the trial, patients will be assigned at random to receive the implant or to receive standard medication therapy.