Patient dies after pioneering operation
Surgeon Panayiotis Spyrou yesterday explained that the death of a patient who had been fitted with a revolutionary device to keep his heart functioning had been caused by the heart’s weaker right ventricle failing to function. «The patient emerged from the operation in an excellent hemodynamic condition,» Prof. Spyrou said, explaining that Haralambos Nenoglou, 54, died because the weaker right ventricle of his heart failed to function and not because of a hemorrhage, as some reports said.. Nenoglou, who had been the first heart patient in Greece to be fitted with a device designed by scientists at NASA (a titanium inflow cannula) in a five-hour operation in Thessaloniki on Tuesday, died later, shortly before midnight. «We lost the battle but not the war,» said Spyrou. «We will continue to use the method… It is the only hope (for patients) waiting for a donor organ,» he said.
