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Can two hearts beat together in a human body? Yes! They can. A San Diego man has two beating hearts--his old failing heart and a newly transplanted heart, which he got implanted after a rare life-saving surgery.
According to the Daily Mail, Tyson Smith was suffering from heart failure but was too weak to have a traditional heart transplant.
As the patient couldn't replace his own heart with the new one, and he needed both, doctors implanted a donor heart to supplement his own heart.
Dr Michael Madani, associate professor of surgery and co-director of the UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, said: “Even though Mr Smith was facing death he could not have a standard heart transplant.
"Removing the old heart and replacing it with a new heart would have caused the new heart to fail, because resistance to flow in his lungs - called pulmonary hypertension - was so high. But together, the two hearts share the work and get the job done.”
He continued: “In the heterotopic procedure, the new heart is positioned on the right side of the patient’s own heart. The donor and recipients’ left atria (filling chambers) are surgically attached 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.”