In 2010, a 71-year-old man was admitted to an emergency room in Verona, Italy, with shortness of breath. One could assume that this was a normal case in an emergency room. However, this patient was more unique than he seemed: he had two hearts.
According to , although man was only born with one heart, that heart ended up having countless problems.
Man developed arterial hypertension, high cholesterol and one irregular heartbeat and abnormally fast and was eventually diagnosed with a rare heart disease known as idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathya condition in which the heart’s chambers become larger and weaker, meaning they can’t pump blood as well.
Although man was equipped with a pacemaker In 2001, his condition was considered terminal — he would eventually need a new heart.
When performing organ transplants, surgeons they do not always remove the original diseased organ. Although it is rare in the case of hearts, this is exactly what happened in this patient’s case in 2003.
Known as heterotopic heart transplantthe procedure involves placing the donor heart into the body and connecting its chambers and blood vessels to those of the existing heart, essentially creating a double heart.
Typically, this procedure is only performed in cases where the donor’s heart would not be strong enough to function on its own or when the two hearts are of different sizes, but it also has some other advantages.
“The procedure can give the patient’s original heart a chance to recover, and if the donor heart fails, it can be removed, allowing the patient’s original heart to function again,” explain the authors of a case study on the 71-year-old patient.
What happens when two hearts stop working?
Unfortunately for the man in question, his condition would worsen once again. When he arrived at the Emergency Department, it was discovered that there was problems with both hearts. The original heart had an irregular type of rhythm, while the donor’s rhythm was faster than usual.
Finally, the irregular rhythm also ended up affecting the donor’s heartto the point where the patient loses consciousness, stops breathing and has no pulse. If you’re not familiar with what’s supposed to happen when this happens, it usually means it’s time to take out the defibrillator.
Fortunately, 200 joules in the chest the problem. The man’s heart restarted with a normal rhythm and, when he was well enough to undergo surgery, his pacemaker was replaced with a type of implantable defibrillator, called cardioversor.
15 years later, although the fate of this rare patient is unknownat the time the case study was published, the authors reported that he was “in good clinical condition,” which is the best that can be expected in such a situation.
Teresa Oliveira Campos, ZAP //
