The battery-operated turbine rotating 10,000 times a minute that keeps Dick Cheney alive



Former vice president Dick Cheney is trying to avoid a sixth heart attack - with the help of a battery-operated turbine.

The 70-year-old, photographed looking thin and frailer than usual in recent months, has lifted the lid on the groundbreaking device which is keeping him alive.

Powered by battery packs strapped to Cheney's chest, the 'Left Ventricular Assist Device', a turbine implanted near his heart's major chamber, pumps blood into his aorta and circulates it throughout his body.

Affairs of the heart: Dick Cheney has suffered five heart attacks since 1978

Fitted a year ago after his fifth heart attack, its rotor spins between 8,000 and 10,000 times a minute, lifting the strain on his weakened organ.



In a rare outpouring Cheney hailed advances in American medical science.

CHENEY'S HISTORY OF HEART FAILURE

1978 - Suffers first heart attack aged 37 1984 - Disaster strikes again during another campaign year 1988 - Third attack prompts quadruple bypass 2000 - Heart attack number four strikes during Florida recount 2010 - Device implanted after fifth heart attack leaves him close to death



'I've been extraordinarily fortunate to live in a place and a time when all that was going on,' he todl the Wall Street Journal.

Cheney wears a custom wool vest he calls 'the gear' that holds a small computer near his abdomen. On either side are two battery packs.

'They're good for about 10 hours,' he said.

The pack, connected to his chest via an insulated cable, powers the LVAD.

'It's not an artificial heart,' Cheney explained.



'You still got to have a heart and it's still got to be working.'

The turbine was implanted as an alternative to a heart transplant as Cheney's condition deteriorated after his last attack last February.



Predecessor: Cheney had an LVAD, or Left Ventricular Assist Device, which is operated by two battery packs the size of video tapes before his transplant

He revealed the device allows him to carry out all his day-to-day duties.

'I'm not running any foot races,' he said.



'But I'm able to do virtually anything I would want to do.'

Ahead of a fly-fishing trip to Montana's Bighorn later this summer Cheney, who served under George W Bush, joked: 'I can't fall in. Whatever you do, don't fall in.'



Cheney says the turbine allows him to carry out day-to-day tasks but he is not 'running any foot races'

Cheney also revealed that his first heart attack, in 1978, may have aided his political career.



'I became convinced it kind of helped,' he said.

'It significantly advanced my name identification. I got a lot of coverage. I even got sympathy donations.'