Illinois man goes home without a heart

OAK LAWN, Ill. (NBC/WMAQ) - A 64-year-old postal worker went home from the hospital without his heart.

The Total Artificial Heart is now keeping him alive. Leroy Hanes would be dead without the world's only Total Artificial Heart.

"He is our first patient now able to go home," said Dr. Chadrick Cross, a heart surgeon.

And at home, a portable power supply is what'll keep his artificial heart beating – from a backpack.

"It used to be that when implanted patients were tied to hospital and a huge machine, the big advance is this freedom driver to allow people to go home,” said Dr. Michael Bresicker, a heart surgeon.

"It feels different, but I'm alive," said Hanes, whose heart had essentially failed.

The surgery gave him more time to wait for a donor heart, which can take up to five years.

"I'm not used to the noise yet, but having my wife over the noise makes it worthwhile,” he said. “It doesn't matter."

Hanes said he wants to get back to gardening as he waits for the call to prepare for a heart transplant.

And they both know that with technology, there will be change.

“Yes, our life is going to change,” said wife Pat Hanes. “It's a new way of living, but we're prepared for that. And we're happy that we jut have more time together."