The man believed to be both the first and longest-surviving lifetime recipient of an artificial heart has died at age 68, BBC reported Monday.
Peter Houghton was fitted with a Jarvik 2000 left ventricular assist device in June 2000. He has been listed by various media outlets as the first permanent recipient of the device.
Wikipedia also lists Houghton, of Edgbaston, Birmingham in the U.K., as the longest-known survivor of such a transplant.
Before his June 2000 operation, Houghton was given only weeks to live with his own heart working at just 10 percent of normal capacity.
Click here to read the BBC story
He died Nov. 25 at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital. The cause of death was given as multiple organ failure.
In August, Houghton told the Washington Post that, while the artificial heart saved his life, it also changed his personality and left him more "cold-hearted" and less "sympathetic."
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox