Jason Dale had to move fast when he his phone rang just before midnight. "They told me they had a heart for me, and I was like, ''Yahoo!''" says Dale, 31.

For close to five months Dale had lived not only on Barnes-Jewish Hospital''s heart transplant list, but he lived with a device inside his body keeping him alive until that heart became available on the night of October 8.

"That device saved my life," says Dale of Cottage Hills, IL.

"That device" is the HeartMate II, a next generation heart assist device designed to provide long-term cardiac support for patients in need of a heart transplant. The device is a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) and is surgically attached to the heart''s left ventricle. The device then sits over the abdomen inside the skin and assists with heart function as the patient then either waits for a new heart via transplant.

Surgeons have been using such devices for close to a decade, but the HeartMate II differentiates itself from its two predecessors, HeartMate I and Novacor.

Those devices make loud clicking sounds as they pump oxygen-rich blood though the body and cannot be used in small patients as the devices are a bit large. The HeartMate II is noiseless, much smaller at about the size of a finger, uses a rotary pumping mechanism to move blood through the body and is thought to be more durable.

"This is the future," says Nader Moazami, MD, surgical director of heart transplant at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. "It''s another step toward using devices to eliminate the need for heart transplant."

In the United States, over 3,500 people annually are on the heart transplant waiting list and there are simply not enough organs available to meet that type of demand. To Dr. Moazami, a fully implantable device could revolutionize heart care.

"This is a significant advancement in technology in supporting patients with end stage heart failure," says Dr. Moazami.

That''s the situation Dale was in when he arrived at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in June. The effects of heart failure had left his heart pumping at only 1.9 percent efficiency, meaning Dale simply could not survive what would prove to be months before a donor heart would become available. Dr. Moazami implanted the HeartMate II in Dale as part of a clinical trial at Washington University School of Medicine.

"I just want to thank everyone: the doctors, the nurses, the device and the donor family," says Dale. "Without them I wouldn''t be here today."