Schroeder May Be Discharged, Haydon ‘Doing Well’ : DeVries Readies Plans for New Implant

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  William J. Schroeder’s discharge plans are under way, Murray P. Haydon’s recovery is “doing very well,” and another artificial heart implant could be performed next week, the experiment’s director said Friday.

Dr. William C. DeVries said that Haydon is still using vital monitoring machinery that would be needed after another implant. As soon as he is off the equipment, “we’d probably be ready to do another one. It probably would be sometime next week,” DeVries said.

But DeVries, in his first public comments since Haydon’s implant last Sunday, said that the hospital’s Humana Heart Institute International had not yet admitted any candidates to become the fourth recipient of a permanent artificial heart.

20 Being Monitored

The doctor, who performed all three implants of the Jarvik-7 heart, said that about 20 persons were being carefully monitored to see if their condition deteriorated to the extent that they would need the device to stay alive.

He said that some patients have turned down the chance for an artificial heart apparently because they were deterred by the prospect of unceasing publicity.

“I don’t blame any of you all for doing your job,” DeVries told reporters. “But I’m just saying that (publicity) has become an issue.

DeVries said that when a crowd of reporters near the hospital entrance kept Schroeder from going outside Wednesday, his wife, Margaret, said: “We seem to be a prisoner. Are we always going to be prisoners?”

Date Not Specified

The doctor said that another implant was not contingent on Schroeder’s discharge from the hospital but that “we’re working on discharging him now” to a hospital-owned “halfway” house across the street. He did not specify a release date for Schroeder, 53, of Jasper, Ind.

DeVries said that Haydon, 58, a retired Louisville auto worker, was “doing very well” Friday and had increased his calorie intake.

Haydon, who has felt weak since his implant, continued to show signs of weak kidney function, but DeVries said that also occurred after the operations on Schroeder and Barney Clark, a Seattle-area dentist who was the first recipient of the artificial heart.

DeVries would not draw any detailed comparison of the latest heart recipients, saying: “This is not a horse race.” But he said: “When the two patients get together, and you see both these patients that would have been dead and they’re alive and they’re happy to be alive, that’s exciting.”