- Times of India
VIVA – Craig Lewis became the first man to live without a heart. The man from the United States can survive for about a month without a heart after being diagnosed with only 12 hours left.
In 2011, two doctors at the Texas Heart Institute successfully installed a special device on Lewis' body. The device inserted into his body allowed Lewis to survive without a heart.
At that time, Lewis was convicted of not being able to survive due to his heart problems.
However, the installation of a special device, called a continuous-flow pump, allowed him to wake up and speak. The device was installed after doctors removed Lewis' heart.
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The device allows blood to continue circulating without a pulse. In other words, the device takes over the role of the heart organ.
Lewis' heart failure did not come out of the blue.
The condition was triggered by the rare autoimmune disease amyloidosis that Lewis contracted in 2011.
Two doctors, Billy Cohn and Bud Frazier, proposed the installation of a special device that would help Lewis' blood circulation continue without a pulse.
The two doctors had created the device earlier and tested it on about 50 calves.
They removed the calves' hearts and replaced them with the device. As a result, the calves were able to carry out their daily functions without their hearts pumping blood throughout their bodies.
"If you listen to the calf's chest with a stethoscope, you won't hear a heartbeat. If you hook the cow up to an electrocardiogram, the screen will show a flat line," Cohn stated.
The two doctors' proposal was accepted by Lewis' wife, Linda. She allowed the doctors to install the device on her husband's body.
The device works by supplying a continuous flow of blood throughout the body, using blades to move it.
Before the device was installed, Lewis was fitted with a dialysis machine, a breathing machine and an external blood pump. Linda was surprised when she tried to hear her husband's pulse.
"I tried to listen and there was a buzz. Amazingly, he had no pulse," she said.
Unfortunately, Lewis' condition began to deteriorate as the disease attacked his liver and kidneys. He passed away in April 2011.
Because of the device, he managed to live more than a month without a pulse. The doctors also said that the pump worked perfectly.
