Even in ancient times, people experimented with exchanging tissues from their own body or another person’s body to fix up an area. Writings from the ancient Egyptians show that physicians of their time practiced skin grafting on warriors whose faces were mutilated during battle.

The idea came from the even older concept of agricultural transplantation. A plant could be dug up, and re-planted in a new area and continue to survive. Therefore, doctors (even back in those times) experimented with replacing body parts, under the assumption that the theory would follow through.

1812: Julian Jean Cesar La Gallois suggests that a continuing injection of blood could maintain the lives of those

whose hearts had failed

1880: Henry Martin builds “heart-lung preparation” to pump blood through those organs

1928: H. H. Dale and E. H. J. Schuster claim they built a pump that can circulate the blood of a “heartless animal”

1952: Experimental mechanical heart used to keep a patient alive for almost an hour during surgery

*Since 1953, heart-lung machines have been necessary pieces of equipment in operating rooms where open-heart surgery is being performed

                                    

•Those who have heart disease and have little hope of surviving more than six months.

•Those between the ages of 13 and 50

•Those in relatively good health (other than their heart disease)

•Those who are mentally stable

•Those who are able to cooperate well with doctors and willing to follow a strict medical routine for the rest of their lives.

               

                                                         

   

                                                         

   

From refrigerator-sized machines…

…to hand-held, battery operated power supply.

•The heart pumps over 300 quarts of blood an hour. Your heart will beat approximately 2,700,000,000 times in a lifetime. There are 59,951 miles of blood vessels in your body!

•It is a fact that the heart, when taken out of the body, will continue to beat. Even when cut into parts, the muscles in the heart will continue to beat.

•The human body contains up to ten pints of blood. Red blood cells are formed at a rate of 2 million per second.

Take a look at the facts: