Girl's heart jump-started after 10 years

[NTB]

Interesting story

I had no idea doctors could do something like this, though now that I think about it, I don't really see why they *couldn't*. I wonder how they kept the original heart alive if they, for lack of a better description, shut it down for 10 years?

Nate

 

[jagec]

Holy crap, her heart was stopped for ten years? WTFZOMBIE!!!:Q


My question is where they had stuck the old one...did they end up having to root through the dumpster behind the local McDonald's, or something?

 

[KarmaPolice]

did u get this from Digg

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
did u get this from Digg

Fark

 

[middlehead]

Originally posted by: jagec
Holy crap, her heart was stopped for ten years? WTFZOMBIE!!!:Q


My question is where they had stuck the old one...did they end up having to root through the dumpster behind the local McDonald's, or something?

Looks like they just left it in her chest and connected all the "wiring" to the implanted one.

 

[KarenMarie]

wierd... i read that story in four different places and none of them mentioned anything about rejecting the transplanted heart. they all said that they took the transplanted heart out becuase her own heart grew strong enough on it's own to not need the transplanted one.

 

[KarenMarie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4904914.stm

shows diagram of what they did.

 

[Eli]

That is very interesting.

So uh.. when they do a heart transplant.. don't they usually remove the old organ?

The donor heart was able to take over most of the role of pumping blood around Hannah's body, effectively allowing her own heart, which continued beating too, to rest.

:Q

OMG, I bet that felt really weird.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: Eli
That is very interesting.

So uh.. when they do a heart transplant.. don't they usually remove the old organ?

I assume that normally they do; I gathered from the article that they did this as a sort of experiment.

Nate

 

[Eli]

She has also battled lymph cancer in recent years but is now in remission following a successful course of chemotherapy in January.

WTF? :Q

 

[The Batt?sai]

Originally posted by: jagec
Holy crap, her heart was stopped for ten years? WTFZOMBIE!!!:Q
q]

best response ever

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: Eli
That is very interesting.

So uh.. when they do a heart transplant.. don't they usually remove the old organ?

The donor heart was able to take over most of the role of pumping blood around Hannah's body, effectively allowing her own heart, which continued beating too, to rest.

:Q

OMG, I bet that felt really weird.

A double heartbeat...that would be weird.

Nate

 

[magomago]

I wonder what the long term effects on the mechanics of her heart will die and how that will affect its dimensions...If you reduce the pressure in the heart greatly...if we assume simple laplacian mechanics for a baloon(if we model a heart as a hollow sphere) the stress should also reduce greatly. But over time I wonder if there will be any adjustments in the thickness, or the size of the heart. Would the heart's size decrease at all to try to riase the stress level to that "natural state" of stress? Would thickness decrease as well? There are countless factors that come into play (and I'm considering only relative simple mechanics ones...not even the biological responses!) and scientifically, it would be interesting to follow up on her.
Now ethically...is that fine, since its essentially subjecting her to a plethora of tests for the rest of her life, potentially making her feel like an expirament(despite the good that may come form the information we learn)? Meh, maybe somehow try the idea on rats first