US teen lives 118 days without heart

US teen lives 118 days without heart

Source Article

MIAMI, Nov 19 (Reuters) - An American teen-ager survived for nearly four months without a heart, kept alive by a custom-built artificial blood-pumping device, until she was able to have a heart transplant, doctors in Miami said on Wednesday.

The doctors said they knew of another case in which an adult had been kept alive in Germany for nine months without a heart but said they believed this was the first time a child had survived in this manner for so long.

(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 19-11-2008 by nyk537]

Pretty amazing stuff. The idea of this sounds impossible, especially at first glance at the title.

"She essentially lived for 118 days without a heart, with her circulation supported only by the two blood pumps," said Dr. Marco Ricci, the hospital's director of pediatric cardiac surgery. During that time, Simmons was mobile but remained hospitalized.

When an artificial heart is used to sustain a patient, the patient's own heart is usually left in the body, doctors said.

Source Article
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 19-11-2008 by nyk537]

reply to post by nyk537


Okay, now I have seen yet another piece of evidence at how far we have come. I didn't even know about the German case. Very cool stuff. I love science.

reply to post by dariousg


As do I.

The things we can do now are amazing, and they keep getting better.

That is extraordinary information. Thanks for posting this!

Eesh, I can only imagine the technology we'll have in the next 50 years...

What is most amazing to me is that they were able to inhibit the bodies immune response from rejecting this external blood treatment for all that time.
That isn't easy with all the antibodies etc, in any individuals blood.

If they are able to do that, then perhaps people undergoing cardiac bypass surgery, will have a better outcome.
Many patients, up to 30% suffer complications (ranging from blood clots, strokes, brain damage to simple memory and personality changes),
during the bypass procedure.

I am hoping medical science has learnt something from this acheivement, that they are able to transistion into the already available 'routine' procedures that aren't perfect.

This is fabalous. I really cant believe it. I think all of black ops secret technology should be given to the medical field for break throughs.


star & flag

I'm amazed with todays technology that we don't have better artificial organs, especially a heart. Its a frigging souped up sump pump.

hehe...

I always knew some girls just had no heart...


Amazing story though...

Even in things we think we know about, we are still surprised all the time

Well, maybe the little girl in the UK who has decided to die rather than have a heart transplant will have another choice now. One reason for her decision was the risk of transplant rejection and lifelong medication. This is good news indeed.