The World’s First Heartless Man [View all]

[n2doc]

By Zeon Santos in Health, Living, Pictures, Science & Tech on Feb 2, 2012 at 9:21 pm


Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute have successfully replaced a patient’s heart with a device that keeps the blood flowing, thereby allowing him to live without a detectable heartbeat or even a pulse. Here’s how it works:

The turbine-like device, that are simple whirling rotors, developed by the doctors does not beat like a heart, rather provides a ‘continuous flow’ like a garden hose.

Craig Lewis was a 55-year-old, dying from amyloidosis, which causes a build-up of abnormal proteins. The proteins clog the organs so much that they stop working, according to NPR.

But after the operation, with the ‘machine’ as his heart’s replacement, Lewis’ blood continued to spin and move through his body.

However, when doctors put a stethoscope to his chest, no heartbeat or pulse can be heard (only a ‘humming’ sound)—which “by all criteria that we conventionally use to analyze patients”, Doctor Cohn said, he is dead.

more
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/the_world_s_first_heartless_man

I thought Dick Cheney had that distinction...