The winners of the 2024 PBS Kids Writers Contest at WVPB have been announced!
Nominate an exceptional West Virginia teacher today!
On Demand
On Demand
Watch locally produced documentaries & more.
On Demand
On Demand
West Virginia Morning
Inside Appalachia
West Virginia Week
Mountain Stage
Us & Them
The Legislature Today
Send us your comments and questions.
Stream our board meetings.
Come and meet us!
Check out the latest WVPB news.
Meet the WVPB staff.
WV Educational Broadcasting Authority, the WVPB Foundation, and the Friends of WVPB.
Come work with us!
Sign up for our newsletter and get weekly updates.
Sponsor impactful and engaging media and entertainment.
Use your IRA to make a gift to WVPB.
Become a member with your gift of $1,000 or more.
Doctors at WVU Heart and Vascular Institute have implanted a permanent artificial heart pump into a Maryland man with a failing heart in the first surgery of its kind in West Virginia.
The procedure surgically attached an artificial pump to the heart. That pump was then paired with a power pack worn outside the body. The device helps pump blood through the body when other methods to treat heart failure would not be effective.
Before the surgery, doctors reported the patient had about a 10 percent likelihood of surviving two years. Now those odds are more than 80 percent.
The surgery was part of WVU Medicine’s new comprehensive Advanced Heart Failure Program.
Heart failure is the fourth leading cause of hospitalization and readmission in the U.S., according to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Depending on its severity, most cases of heart failure can be managed with medications, pacemakers, or surgery. When those treatments are not options, heart transplantation or a heart pump, such as the procedure described, is necessary.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.
