Meet the world’s first man without a heart, has no pulse

Due to his heart condition, Doctors replaced a dying man’s heart with a gadget that allowed blood to flow through his body without a pulse.

Craig Lewis, 55, was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare autoimmune illness that creates a buildup of aberrant proteins and causes fast heart, kidney, and liver failure. 

The man was given only 12 hours to live, but the Texas Heart Institute’s Dr Billy Cohn and Dr Bud Frazier advised installing a ‘continuous flow’ device to support Lewis’ blood circulation.

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The two doctors had developed the device some time ago and tested it on approximately 50 calves. They took the hearts of the animals and replaced them with the device. The calves were reportedly able to go about their regular lives without real hearts.

“If you listened to (the cow’s) chest with a stethoscope, you wouldn’t hear a heartbeat. If you hooked her up to an EKG, she’d be flat-lined,” Dr Cohn told National Public Radio.

Lewis’s wife Linda gave the physicians permission to implant the device in her husband’s body because he only had a few hours left.

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The device operates by delivering a continuous flow of blood through the body and moving it along with blades.

Lewis was put on dialysis, a breathing machine, and an external blood pump before the device was fitted.

Linda was astonished when she felt her husband’s pulse. “I listened, and it was a hum, which was incredible. He didn’t have a pulse,” she reported.

Lewis’ condition however deteriorated as the disease attacked his liver and kidneys, and he died in April 2011.

He survived for more than a month without a pulse, and his physicians said the pump worked perfectly.