A 61-year-old South African man who was fitted with an external artificial heart died on April 15 in Cape Town’s City Park Hospital, the facility disclosed on Monday. The man, who had asked not to be identified, was given the heart – a pump made from polyurethane with two ventricles – by a 10-member team of doctors led by transplant unit head Willie Koen on March 18 during a marathon 10-hour operation. Koen said on Monday that the hospital had been unable to find a suitable donor heart to replace the mechanical one. “His condition was aggravated when he developed renal (kidney) failure as a result of pulmonary hypertension,” Koen said. – AFP