I'm going to be famous! :D

Sara has a penpal who has been writing teenage/childrens books for some time.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/nnfarmington/0411/17/v02-6461.htm

In her book "Confessions of a Boyfriend Stealer", she named one of her characters after me. Now it's going to be published and possibility made into a movie. :D

Warm & Fuzzy

Everytime Ventracor is in the media we get sent a copy of it from our propaganda guy. This is today's one. It's nice to know that your 9-5 grind is contributing to making someone's life a little better.

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Bionic heart saves woman
SARAH BLAKE MATP 354 words 7 November 2004Sunday Telegraph2 - First24EnglishCopyright 2004 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved
A SYDNEY woman who nearly died last month is the State's first recipient of a new device with the potential to become the world's only permanent, artificial heart.
Drummoyne mother-of-three Karmela Viskovich, 57, has spent the past six months in hospital after suffering heart failure triggered by an overactive thyroid gland.
Ten days ago, the only thing making her heart work was a temporary pump in her leg, which doctors knew was unlikely to last until a transplant was possible.
St Vincent's Hospital head of heart surgery and transplants Dr Phillip Spratt decided the only option was to transplant a revolutionary new heart pump, which is in clinical trials.
"She was so ill that the safe option was to put in an artificial heart, which we have been doing for about 10 years now," Dr Spratt said. "But the problem was that she is only a small person, and the American-made pump we would usually have used would have been too big for her.
"The advantages are that this is a smaller pump, about half the size of previous pumps. "Without this device she would still be in intensive care or she may well not even be alive.
"But the potential with this pump, if all the trials are successful, is that it could well be offered to some patients, who have no other alternative or the option of a transplant, as a permanent option."
The Ventricor left ventricular assist device, which Sydney doctor John Woodard helped to invent, uses magnetic fields to control a small pump within the vein to make the heart work.
"It is like a small airplane wing which automatically flies within the middle of vein, without coming into contact with anything," Dr Woodard said.
Mrs Viskovich has now been moved into a general ward from intensive care and yesterday took a tentative walk. "We were told to be prepared for the worst, that I probably wouldn't make it, so this is my second chance," Mrs Viskovich said.