On May 3, 2010, Charles Okeke became the first U.S. patient to be discharged from the hospital without a human heart when he walked out of an Arizona heart center.

Mr. Okeke received the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart as a bridge to transplant on Sept. 8, 2008, when his body was rejecting an earlier heart transplant. He spent eight months at home with his family until he received a donor heart-kidney transplant Jan. 15, 2011.