EV woman gets artificial heart at Mayo hospital

An East Valley grandmother has a new lease on life.

Judy Beaumont, 56, of Gilbert, became the first patient in Maricopa County to receive an artificial heart late last month at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in northeast Phoenix.

The mechanical polyurethane heart, known as the CardioWest temporary Total Artificial Heart, stabilized Beaumont for two weeks until she received a donor heart transplant on Sept. 4.

“It was scary to think they are taking out your whole heart and putting in an artificial one,” said Beaumont, speaking from her hospital room on Wednesday, in labored breaths, still apparently weak from her ordeal.

Early last month emergency room doctors in Gilbert told Beaumont if she didn’t receive a heart transplant, she would only have a month to live, said her daughter Kristi Gifford, of Gilbert.

“It was a shock. We weren’t expecting this,” recalled Gifford, saying the family thought her recent fatigue was from the overtime Beaumont, a communications company employee in Phoenix, was working.

Gifford said her mother, who’s suffered from recent bouts of heart problems, seemed to be doing well following her recovery from the heart attack she suffered last April and the heart valve surgery she underwent last winter.

Gifford said everything appeared fine until a day in early August when Gifford said her mother “started throwing up and feeling bad.” She said emergency room doctors informed her mother her symptoms were a result of congestive heart failure.

Gifford said her mother was transferred to Banner Heart Hospital in Mesa for further evaluation. She said the family was told Beaumont would have a 60 percent survival rate if she had an artificial heart implanted. She said her mother’s odds would jump to 90 percent if she were to receive a donor heart transplant following the mechanical heart surgery.

Beaumont was referred to Mayo heart transplant program director Dr. Francisco Arabia and placed on a heart transplant list.

“Her whole heart was failing,” Arabia recalled, adding time was not on Beaumont’s side. He said he felt Beaumont was a good candidate for the mechanical device, which he said the hospital obtained this summer. Arabia said he had previously performed about 20 to 30 such surgeries at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Beaumont reacted well to the mechanical heart and was placed back onto the heart transplant list over Labor Day weekend, said Gifford.

The call the family had been hoping for came quickly. Around midnight on Labor Day, Beaumont was told a heart from an anonymous donor in Denver looked to be a match.

Beaumont said she is grateful to the donor family for their gift of life and hopes to thank them in person one day.

“I’m happy to be alive,” Beaumont said. She is expected to be released next week.