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Originally, Cooley had estimated that the patient might be able to live as long as a month with the artificial heart. When the question was repeated later in the week, however, his reply was more circumspect. "I don't know," he said. "This is a human being we're working with." As a result of the furor provoked by the Karp case and the still unresolved questions of procedure and ethics, heart surgeons are likely to be extremely hesitant before they try to duplicate Dr. Cooley's desperate act.
* One measure of the gravity of the problem is the fact that the NHI is spending some $6,000,000 to study the cause of such damage and to develope blood-compatible materials for artificial hearts.