Pioneering heart patient dies

(CNN) -- The man who made medical history by receiving the first fully implanted artificial heart has died.

Robert Tools, 59, died Friday, doctors at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, said.

"Bob became a dear friend to all of us. We will miss Bob's laugh, his sense of humor and his fighting spirit," said Dr. Robert Dowling, one of the surgeons who implanted the artificial heart. "Our sympathy and support go out to his family and to all those who knew and loved Bob. His pioneering spirit will long live on in the fight against heart disease."

Earlier in the day, doctors announced Tools had developed severe abdominal bleeding and multi-organ failure from which he was not expected to recover.

The hospital said the bleeding was not related to the AbioCor artificial heart, nor to the stroke Tools suffered on November 11, but was linked to blood clotting problems caused by Tools' chronic illness. On July 2, 2001, Tools became the first person in the world to let doctors cut out his entire heart and replace it with the completely implanted, battery-powered AbioCor artificial heart.

VIDEO Robert Tools talks to the press (August 21) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES Heart patient had to 'take chance'     EXTRA INFORMATION Explainer: See a diagram of how the heart is implanted and powered  Timeline: What research led to the implantation of the artificial heart?

Without the plastic and titanium device, doctors gave Tools a slim chance of surviving even a month. He had exhausted all other options for treating his heart failure, and with kidney failure and diabetes complicating his condition, was too sick to qualify for a human heart transplant.

But within days of the operation, surgeons saw improvement in Tools' health.

"Certainly the progress with the patient has been extremely pleasing, and I think it really surpasses any expectations that I've ever had," Dr. Laman Gray, one of the surgeons who conducted the implant, said at the time.

Tools received the artificial heart as part of a clinical trial of the device, manufactured by Abiomed of Danvers, Massachusetts.

Although the risks were great, Tools said the choice to participate in the experiment was an easy one.

"There was no decision to make," he said in his first public appearance, seven weeks after the surgery. "I mean, I had a choice. I could sit at home and die or come here and take a chance. I decided to come here and take a chance, and my family went along with me."

Since his procedure, five other men have followed in his footsteps. The most recent patient died during surgery; the other four are in various stages of recovery.

Doctors described Tools as very determined to recover. He had been gaining weight in the past few weeks, and had taken some 20 excursions away from the hospital during his recovery.

"It's phenomenal," said Dr. Robert Dowling, who was also on the surgery team. "It's what we had hoped for, but we often hope for the best possible scenario. You don't often get it, but in this case we got it."

Tools had hoped to spend the holidays at home in Franklin, Kentucky, but suffered the stroke before doctors could grant his wish.

Still, Tools got more time than he bargained for by getting the AbioCor transplant.

His wife, Carol, said they had more fun during the last few months than in the two years he struggled with a weak heart, and that neither she nor Tools had any regrets.

-- CNN Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland contributed to this report.