A 37-year-old fireman from Czech Republic became the first
man to live without a pulse for six months after having his heart removed and
replaced by mechanical pumps on April 3. Jakub Halik has said that he is able to
live “like a healthy man.”
The fireman became only the second man
to undergo the procedure - the first man who underwent the procedure died a
month after surgery in Texas last year.
The father-of-one still lives in the
hospital and is confined to his wheelchair for much of the day but said that he
is lucky to be alive.
Halik is hoping to receive a donor
heart and eventually return to the force.
He had to undergo the extraordinary
surgery after he was diagnosed with an aggressive tumour growing inside his
heart a standard transplant was a no-no for him as the drugs that he would
require afterwards cannot be taken by cancer patients, the Daily Mail reported.
So, on April 3 this year his heart was
removed in an eight-hour operation led by Czech cardiologist Jan Pirk.
The doctors placed two modified
Heartmate 2 pumps inside his body.
“It was hard for me but I didn’t have
any other chance at all. It was acknowledged that with the tumour I can survive
for about one year and I decided to fight and do it this way,” Halik said.
However, there is one thing the pumps
cannot replicate that is the pulse.
“I don’t even realise it, because the
functions of the body are the same, only my heart is not beating and I have no
pulse anymore,” Halik said.
“This is the only difference but otherwise
I am functioning like a healthy man at present,” he revealed.
Halik must carry a battery that
supplies power to the pumps, with him wherever he goes. But he isn’t bed-bound.
No comments:
Post a Comment