
Chris Marshall, 50, who has an electric artificial heart needs to keep charging the device's batteries very often to keep pumping blood around his body.
The batteries last only for 4-hours. So during a long car journey he even plugs himself into his cigarette lighter to ensure he never runs out of charge.
Chris said, "I plug in at every available opportunity. When I go to sleep, I plug into the mains socket as if it fails in the night it will literally be goodnight. I must be one of the only people in Britain powered by their cigarette lighter."
However, last year his heart capacity deteriorated to just 13% and he was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) - a device with an electrical impulse which regulated his heartbeat thus acting as an artificial heart and pumping blood around his body.
Last July, he was fitted with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), a device with an external power unit powered by two batteries which last around 4-hours each.
However, this problem does not have a long-term fix and Chris is still on the donor list awaiting the perfect match.
Source: Medindia