I'm sorry for your loss. My dad had one recently, a real slap in the face to change his habits, and he recovered well enough to keep speaking and remaining cane mobile. Gosh now that I think about it that was last September.

I've thought about the same thing though. I think it has to do with brain damage, broken ribs from CPR and other related issues to keep someone alive.

When I saw this pulseless heart a few years back I imagined we'd be seeing them more and more to the point of, as you alluded too, being able to hook someone up to a "heart."

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/13/137029208/heart-with-no-beat-o...

I can't give you any opinion on the "why" though.

Carmat are making the most progress with an artificial heart, but it is only in clinical trials. The battery is a backpack with a power cord fed in behind your ear. Unfortunately for your dad, we just aren't there yet with fixing a broken heart. In 10 to 20 years, probably.

there is a machine. It's called ECMO http://content.onlinejacc.org/mobile/article.aspx?articleid=...

i am sorry they were not able to save your dad.