Dr Billy Cohn and Dr Bud Frazier from the Texas Heart Institute installed first 'continuous flow' device last March Patient Craig Lewis, 55, no longer has a pulse Device first tested in calves
In March of last year, Craig Lewis, 55, was dying from a heart condition that caused build-ups of abnormal proteins, and not even a pacemaker could help save his life. But two doctors from the Texas Heart Institute proposed a revolutionary new solution – install a ‘continuous flow’ device that would allow blood to circulate his body without a pulse.
Dr Billy Cohn and Dr Bud Frazier installed the device after removing Mr Lewis’ heart. Within a day, the patient was up and speaking with physicians.
The two doctors had developed the device some time before and had tested it on nearly 50 calves. They removed the animals’ hearts, and by the next day, the calves were doing everything they were the day before – eating, sleeping, and moving – but this time, without a heart pumping blood through their bodies.
If you listened to (the cow’s) chest with a stethoscope, you wouldn’t hear a heartbeat,’ Dr Cohn told NPR last June. ‘If you hooked her up to an EKG, she’d be flat-lined.’ Mr Lewis’ amyloidosis was getting worse, and doctors feared he would die soon without necessary efforts. Doctors grimly said he had 12 hours to live.
So, with the permission of Mr Lewis’ wife Linda, Dr Cohn and Dr Frazier installed the heart in March 2011. The device works by supplying a continuous flow of blood through the body, using blades to move it along. Dr Cohn said it contains ‘a moderate amount’ of homemade materials. An incredible short directed by Jeremiah Zagar shows the journey of the world’s first heartless man in stunning detail.
His feature length documentary In A Dream was nominated for two Emmy’s in 2010. According to NPR, thousands of patients – including former Vice President Dick Cheney – have similar ventricular assist devices, though it only assists an already beating heart. snip Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...l#ixzz3OwRD7fqk
** Rich Lowry, Nov 30, 2014 on “Meet the Press” Sunday, National Review editor
Stop trying to make the Ferguson protests something they weren’t. And, just as importantly, stop trying to make Michael Brown, the man shot to death during a fight with police Office Darren Wilson in August, something he wasn’t.
“If you look at the most credible evidence, the lessons are really basic ... don’t rob a convenience store. Don’t fight with a policeman when he stops you and try to take his gun. And when he yells at you to stop, just stop.”
This is an old story, TM !! Nevertheless, I find it terribly interesting because the patient suffered from ...
ZitatMr Lewis’ amyloidosis was getting worse, and doctors feared he would die soon without necessary efforts. Doctors grimly said he had 12 hours to live.
....which was what my father died from (only instead of amyloidosis of the heart, my father had amyloidosis of the kidney). They told us at the time that amyloidosis attacks eventually all the body organs because the blood flow takes the disease through the body's system until all the organs become infected with amyloid deposits and shut down. Amyloidosis is similar in how it spreads through the body like cancer does (cancer kills the cell and amylodosis kills the organs). Seems to me, the 'continuous flow' of this device taking blood through the body would compromise other organs for this patient. I remember my dad was not put on dialysis for that very reason.
I tried to see if this guy is still living and the last article I could pull up was March 27, 2014 which really doesn't say because it is a rehash of your article. If you find out anything more about this patient, I would be interested, TM !!
ZitatFYI, this man lived five weeks and then died from multi organ failure. Here's the story on that TM
Big deal. I have been living without a heart for decades. Kicked a hobo's can of panhandling coins into the street just yesterday for laughs. This guy was a faker.
ZitatFYI, this man lived five weeks and then died from multi organ failure. Here's the story on that TM
Big deal. I have been living without a heart for decades. Kicked a hobo's can of panhandling coins into the street just yesterday for laughs. This guy was a faker.
I have the heart of a small boy...I keep it in a jar on my desk. [stolen from Robert Bloch, but I actually used it in court one day when the judge declaimed, "Never let it be said the D.A doesn't have a heart"].