THE LOSS OF A HEART

In James Quinn’s own words (Stolberg, 2002, pp. 8):

This is nothing, nothing like I thought it would be…'If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't do it. No ma'am. I would take my chances on life.

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These are the words of James Quinn, being only the fifth patient to receive an artificial, fully implantable, AbioCor heart from AbioMed (medical device company).  Faced with his worsening condition of heart failure, Quinn was initially jubilant when he was selected as an implant recipient; the wonderful times he and his wife looked forward to of his quality of life increasing and his clinical condition improving.

     Standing as a research pioneer, the African-American Vietnam veteran was able to use his new heart and time to live to his fullest and spend time with his friends and family; however, everything turned into a nightmare. Quinn’s surgeon, Dr. Samuels, triumphed his surgery as success as he was able to live on for nine more months, but for James and Irene Quinn the wife, it was the opposite. James’ postsurgical life was an amalgamation of extreme pain, depression, and disappointment, only for Quinn to have a stroke, which eventually left him immobile and tethered in a hospital bed. On August 23, 2002, Mr. Quinn suffered a massive stroke and was pronounced brain dead: then two days later, he was taken off life support by having his heart turned off by his surgeon.

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       Feeling infuriated, the now widowed Irene Quinn sued against AbioMed and its partners, which eventually ended in an agreed settlement of $125,000. When Mr. and Mrs. Quinn consented, they were unaware of the risks of the procedure and the fact that it was experimental, and there was a chance of having a poor quality of life. While Mr. Quinn agreed to get the surgery, researchers did not take into consideration (or ignored) the fact that a fatal disease combined with a desire to not die can influence a person’s decision. Investigators tend to overplay the benefits while downplaying the risks. This is exacerbated when consent forms, which were given to Mr. Quinn, contains scientific jargon, forcing patients to rely on medical researchers or doctors, who often don’t communicate that words such as discomfort signifies agonizing pain.

     In other words, Mr. Quinn entered into a procedure with high hopes and unawareness of what he was walking into when he consented to having an artificial heart implanted in him. Rather than prolong life, all the machine did was prolong death for Mr. Quinn.

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Sources:

AbioMed Inc. “Abiomed Receives HDE Supplement Approval For AbioCor Artificial Heart.” Med Device Online. (January 29, 2008). https://vertassets.blob.core.windows.net/image/ca0381c0/ca0381c0-e0e2-4bbe-817f-90c634b5ce35/159_106-clip_image001.jpg

Fox, Renee C., and Judith P. Swazey. “‘He Knows That Machine Is His Mortality’: Old and New Social and Cultural Patterns in the Clinical Trial of the AbioCor Artificial Heart.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 47, no. 1 (January 1, 2004): 74–99. Accessed March 27, 2020. https://muse-jhu-edu.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/article/51102

Goldberg, Debbie. “Artificial Heart Implant Leads to Suit Over Consent Process.” Washington Post: Democracy Dies in Darkness (D.C, WA), (November 30, 2002). Accessed March 23, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/11/30/artificial-heart-implant-leads-to-suit-over-consent-process/f6c83573-d799-4804-bf7d-b84f14106d7b/

The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Hahnemann University Hospital: 171 years of Philadelphia medical history.” Stacey Burling. Getty Images. (August 21, 2019). Accessed April 3, 2020. https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/0i4uKbh1jJsjaOMO5KBjLNyq7BI=/1400x0/center/middle/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/Z4JYXAVMU5FIJKWBMRF3OQQ6T4.jp

Morreim, Haavi. “Clinical Trials Litigation: Practical Realities as Seen From the Trenches.” Accountability in Research 12, no. 1 (2005): 47–67. Accessed March 21, 2020. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08989620590918934.

Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. “On Medicine’s Frontier: The Last Journey of James Quinn: An Experimental Artificial Heart Gave Him a Few More Months of Life, but He Regretted His Decision to Accept It.” (New York, NY), (October. 8, 2002). Accessed March 27, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/08/science/on-medicine-s-frontier-the-last-journey-of-james-quinn.html