A man from Nampa recently became the first patient in this region to receive a new kind of heart pump before undergoing surgery.

Without this device, he would not have been able to receive the operation he needed to live.

According to Saint Alphonsus Health System, this new piece of technology helps the heart pump blood during and after cardiac surgery, which lets the heart rest until it can pump on its own again.

Joining Idaho Matters is the doctor who performed this amazing surgery, Dr. Robert Farivar, who is the cardiovascular surgery Medical Director at the Saint Alphonsus Heart Institute in Boise.