The Berlin Heart is the name of a company that develops, produces and trades pioneering mechanical heart support devices in Berlin, Germany. It is also the name of the ventricular assist device the company produces. This ventricular assist device works by assisting the right ventricle of the heart to pump it back into the pulmonary artery leading to the lung and assisting the left ventricle to pump blood around the body. There are different sizes of The Berlin Heart for patients of all ages and sizes, including children, toddlers and newborn babies. The pump is connected to the patient𠏋 heart through small tubes called cannulus, while the main part of the pump is outside the body. The pump is controlled by a laptop computer from a rolling stand which also provides power for the whole device. The Berlin Heart was made to be used as a passage to recovery or to a transplant.
Ther Berlin Heart is the device that saved Aarons life.
About a year after Aaron recovered, the Zweig family, representing all the friends of Aaron Zweig who had contributed to the heart pump, donated it to Grantham Hospital to help save other childrens lives. A plaque was put up on the wall during the ceremony which was hosted by Duncan Prescott, president of the Children's Heart Foundation. Dr. Leung, the director of Grantham, graciously accepted the gift.
Several months later, an anonymous donor gave Queen Mary and Grantham a total of approximately HKD 22 million in memory of his father. When this donor heard about Aaron's case, he decided to allocate about HKD 5 million to pay for some of the hardware that is necessary for the pump to function.
Below are photographs of the Berlin Heart Donation Ceremony.
