Teen lives 4 months with no heart, leaves hospital

November 19, 2008 By RASHA MADKOUR , Associated Press Writer

(AP) -- D'Zhana Simmons says she felt like a "fake person" for 118 days when she had no heart beating in her chest. "But I know that I really was here," the 14-year-old said, "and I did live without a heart."

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

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ScottyB - Nov 20, 2008
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Awr, hopefully by the time she si 30 they will be able to "grow" a new hear using an artificial frame and stem cells from her own body which will mean she wont have to have imuno-reprecent drugs!
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ShadowRam - Nov 20, 2008
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Lying there in a hospital bed, knowing you don't have a heart, would be a little weird.

Then again, you'd feel like a Cyborg!
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holmstar - Nov 20, 2008
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Awr, hopefully by the time she si 30 they will be able to "grow" a new hear using an artificial frame and stem cells from her own body which will mean she wont have to have imuno-reprecent drugs!

15 yrs is probably plenty of time for this technology to mature. A lab has already created a beating heart using a decelullarized pig heart as a scaffold that was then inoculated with stem cells.

I don't know if the topology of a pig heart is close enough to use in a human, but this is still a big step in the right direction.

Hmmm... I wonder if you could build a collagen scaffold using 3d prototyping technology? Then you would be able to make a perfectly sized heart for transplant.
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