The boy lived for more than a year without a heart in his body

Before conducting heart transplant surgery, a 25-year-old American man must wear a 24/7 artificial heart backpack throughout 555 days.

According to Science Alert, the artificial heart helps pump blood around Stan Larkin's body and keeps him alive. Success from the process shows that devices can be useful for other patients with heart failure while waiting for donors.

In 2014, Stan became the first Michigan patient to use an artificial heart device called "Syncardia" . Stan and his younger brother Dominique are both diagnosed with congenital cardiomyopathy in adolescence. This is a type of genetic heart disease that can cause sudden heart failure, the leading cause of death in athletes.

Stan Larkin with artificial heart behind his back.(Photo: University of Michigan).

After years of waiting for organ donation, the Stan brothers were taken by surgeons and replaced with Syncardia devices.

"Both were very sick when we first met them in the intensive care unit," said Jonathan Haft, transplant surgeon at the University of Michigan's Frankel Heart Center. "We want to transplant their hearts, but there is not enough time. Their situation makes other technologies impossible."

While devices such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators may be useful for partial heart failure, Syncardia is used in cases where both sides of the heart are not working properly.

Dominique only needed to use Syncardia equipment for several weeks before receiving the transplant. But Stan had to wait more than a year. To be able to go home instead of lying in the hospital, Stan had to wear a 6kg backpack with equipment attached to the cardiovascular system, to pump oxygen-containing blood to the body.

The backpack causes many difficulties in living. Stan can't hug or carry girls. But he could still continue playing basketball, making the doctors completely surprised. Stan underwent a heart transplant on May 9 and recovered completely after surgery.