(January 25, 2008)--A Kentucky hospital at the forefront of testing a history-making replacement heart has pulled out of the next round of surgeries.
Jewish Hospital in Louisville has cited the steep expense it shouldered for the procedures.
Jewish Hospital is absent from the list of four hospitals selected by Abiomed, maker of the AbioCor device, as sites for the next surgeries to implant the device in critically ill patients.
The list includes the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston.
Each procedure cost about $1 million, including the $250,000 price tag for each device.
Dr. Bud Frazier with the Texas Heart Institute says it's a real loss that Jewish Hospital had withdrawn from the AbioCor surgeries.
Frazier says a donor has stepped forward promising to cover the Texas hospital's costs of obtaining the AbioCor devices and for training.
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