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Friday, February 25, 2011

Cardiac Patient Kept Alive With Two Hearts

This story caught my eye this morning! Heart transplants have been happening now for years. But, this patient now has two beating hearts! Click on the story below to read the entire article:

Cardiac Patient Kept Alive With Two Hearts

Apparently, the reason was:

the patient needed only one operation rather than two, which saves the patient time, inconvenience, and pain, and reduces medical costs.”

I think one key word there was - "reduces medical costs!" The two hearts do their own thing! The original heart does the following:

Surgeons then attach the donor and recipients’ left atria to each other, “allowing bright red, oxygenated blood in the patient’s original heart to flow to the new heart. It is then pumped by the new left ventricle into the patient’s aorta, which brings new and increased flow to all parts of the body,”

While the new heart:

allows the patient’s right heart(new heart) to continue the right-sided pumping through the lungs,”

Of course, in my situation, my electrical issue of PVC's and extra heart beats, how in the world do you coordinate the electrical rhythms of TWO HEARTS!!!!



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