While there are many heartless souls out there. Craig Lewis, 55, is the first heartless human who is literally living without a pulse. The possibility of replacing someone’s dying heart with pump to save a person only seems achievable in movies and science fiction, Craig’s case, however, is an exception. In March 2011, Craig was suffering with a life threatening heart problem and was admitted with amyloidosis to the Texas Heart Institute Centre.
Amyloidosis is a rare autoimmune disease which causes the internal organs to fill up with viscous build-up of abnormal protein, causing heart, kidney and liver failure. If the doctors hadn’t intervened to save Craig’s life, he would have most likely died within days. Two specialists from the institute came up with a revolutionary idea to install a “continuous flow” device which would allow for blood to circulate throughout the body without a pulse. It would help the left ventricle push oxygenated blood throughout the body.
The two doctors, Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier removed Mr’ Lewis’s heart and installed a device to pump blood throughout the body. The patient was up and speaking with the physicians the very day. Dr. Cohn is an inventor, researcher and a veteran surgeon who has spent a lot of time developing technologies to replace the human heart. One of his most notable developments is the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD).
The two doctors teamed up to develop a device that used the tech from LVADs to replicate the functions of the right and left ventricles of the heart. Before using on the patient, the device was tested on 70 calves with no heartbeat heard by a stethoscope, producing a flat line on an EKG. There was no heart rate and no pulse but the calves were perfectly normal otherwise. Getting on with their day to day activities as they usually would.
The procedure was a great success and took less than 48 hours to complete. However, unfortunately, the patient’s liver and kidneys did not cooperate so well. A few months in his family had to ask the doctors to unplug the device.
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