Ruben Delgadillo

A tiny cardiac device kept Ruben Delgadillo going until his new heart arrived.

Until June 2006, when people talked to Ruben Delgadillo on the phone, they would invariably ask, "Did you just run a mile or something? You're all out of breath."

Being out of breath pretty much defined Ruben's world, whether he was talking on the phone, squeezing lemons on his job as a produce manager or simply walking across the room.

At age 41, he says he felt like an old man.

Because of heart failure caused by an infection four years earlier and a resulting weakened heart muscle, Ruben suffered shortness of breath, swelling, water retention and chronic exhaustion. In his words, his life was relegated to "going to work, coming home and going to work." Even a simple trip to the store loomed as a daunting effort most of the time.

All that changed on June 15, when Ruben Delgadillo, Yuma, Ariz., became the first patient in the state to be implanted with a tiny cardiac device that dramatically improved his quality of life while he waited for a heart transplant. Called the HeartMate II, the small, essentially lightweight device works with the whole body to maintain a steady flow of oxygenated blood until a heart transplant can take place.

For Ruben, the device came just in time. His heart was pumping only 10 percent of its expected volume and was the size of a volley ball. He was, in fact, at risk of dying. "I was up to 280 pounds when I came in," he confesses, but then quickly adds that when his friends saw him when his medical odyssey was over, "They all said they couldn't believe I was the same person."

Reuben's story, obviously, has a happy ending, because he was able to get a heart transplant and to go into the surgery feeling stronger and more resilient, thanks to his HeartMate device. But it was the long journey to that point that taxed his physical and emotional being.

It all began one day when he collapsed on his job in the produce department of the store he works for near Yuma. He apparently scared his coworkers when blood started oozing from his skull. He explains that his potassium levels were "off" from his heart medication and that he frequently felt dizzy. After his fall, he was stitched up and intubated in Yuma, and "I woke up just as they were going to fly me to a hospital in Phoenix," he recalls.

Eventually he was sent to Mayo Clinic Hospital to be evaluated for a heart transplant - something he had been told was inevitable. Because of his weakened condition, Dr. Francisco Arabia, heart transplant surgeon, saw Ruben as a good candidate for the new heart pump. Mayo was only hospital in Arizona using the device, but being "first" was not a frightening prospect for Ruben.

"I trusted the doctors," Ruben insists. "They were excited about this heart pump and they said I could breathe better and eventually could go home with it while I waited for a heart to come in. I had no other options, so I told them to go ahead."

In fact, that was the plan. Ruben, who was tolerating his implanted heart device well, was given the go-ahead to leave the hospital with his HeartMate II to stay at his sister's home in Phoenix until he got "the call." He had the drill down pat in terms of using the batteries while out and around and otherwise linking to the power base.

But he never got to do a solo test run of his HeartMate II. That same day, "They came in and told me I wasn't going home after all. A heart had come in!" Ruben marvels. The surgery went remarkably well. Ruben credits his heart pump and the fact it made him healthier and gave him more energy while waiting.

Was he scared about the transplant? "Think of the alternative," Ruben advises. He also remarked, "All the doctors and nurses were so calm and they kept talking about 'after the surgery,' like I had a future, which helped. They talked as though it was so normal and that after I woke up they would do this or that. That made me feel really good."

According to Dr. Arabia, the HeartMate II is being tested in nearly 30 hospitals around the U.S. and early research suggests a lower risk of stroke and a shorter recovery period for patients. Previous devices were much larger and were noisy. The HeartMate II can pump blood from the heart throughout the body at up to 10 liters per minute - the full output of a healthy heart.

Just over two weeks after Ruben's transplant, it was discharge day. The medical team remarked how he was healthy, energized and ready. Those around him said it was a good sign that Ruben had complained about his breakfast that morning - that it wasn't enough to satisfy his appetite.

"I know that salsa is not allowed for me for a while," he concedes. "But I'm looking forward to being at my sister's house, even if I can't have it."