Two Hearts Beat As One - A Man Needs Two Hearts To Survive
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This video is very graphic so if you are squeamish don't press play.
It is showing two hearts pumping in one body at the same time. It is quite extraordinary as without that extra heart, the man wouldn't be alive.
Tyson Smith went through a rare surgery that's called a heterotopic heart transplant. In the surgery, doctors add another heart to the right side of his chest to share the work and get the job done.
In Smith's case, he couldn't replace his own heart with the new one, he needed both:
"Even though Mr. Smith was facing death, he could not have a standard heart transplant," explained Dr. Michael Madani, associate professor of surgery and co-director of the UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center.
"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."
It's an incredibly rare procedure but one the doctors said is "worth having in the tool kit".
Amazing.
It is showing two hearts pumping in one body at the same time. It is quite extraordinary as without that extra heart, the man wouldn't be alive.
Tyson Smith went through a rare surgery that's called a heterotopic heart transplant. In the surgery, doctors add another heart to the right side of his chest to share the work and get the job done.
In Smith's case, he couldn't replace his own heart with the new one, he needed both:
"Even though Mr. Smith was facing death, he could not have a standard heart transplant," explained Dr. Michael Madani, associate professor of surgery and co-director of the UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center.
"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."
It's an incredibly rare procedure but one the doctors said is "worth having in the tool kit".
Amazing.
