PHOENIX (AZFamily) — It’s incredibly rare for doctors to rely on artificial hearts , but for 22-year-old Tommy Janes and his family, that technology became the only thing standing between life and death.

Diagnosed with cancer at just 3 years old, Tommy endured years of grueling treatments. But his mom, Kim Janes, says it was chemotherapy that would ultimately compromise his heart, leading to sudden and severe heart failure.

On July 21, Tommy collapsed at work, and doctors found a hole in his heart.

What’s keeping Tommy alive now isn’t a heart transplant; it’s a full artificial heart. The device, entirely man-made, takes over the function of a failing heart, pumping blood through the body and buying time for patients who would otherwise have none.

“You need your heart. You can’t beat

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