And now for some happy news:
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-guy-lived-for-more-than-a-year-without-a-heart-in-his-bodyTwo brothers suffer from a condition that may make their heart stop functioning without a warning. Both receive artificial hearts because the doctors fear that there is not enough time to wait for heart transplants.
One of the two, Stan Larkin, spends 555 days with that artificial heart before getting a transplant.
And this is not some "lying in a bed attached to tubes" kind of machine. It is a wearable backpack and it allows the users to move about quite freely. Larkin was even able to play basketball while using the artificial heart!