{"id":13168,"date":"2024-07-10T09:58:29","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T09:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=13168"},"modified":"2024-07-10T09:58:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T09:58:29","slug":"man-lived-without-a-heart-for-555-days-carrying-around-an-artificial-one-in-a-backpack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=13168","title":{"rendered":"Man lived without a heart for 555 days carrying around an artificial one in a backpack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stan Larkin had to wait well over a year for a heart transplant<\/h2>\n

A man who lived without a heart for 555 days was kept alive by the grey backpack he carried everywhere with him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You’d often put a laptop or maybe a notebook in a backpack – but a replacement heart? Well, that’s an interesting one.<\/p>\n

While waiting for a human heart transplant, Stan Larkin lived over a year without the organ at all.<\/p>\n

It certainly wasn’t noticeable to passers-by either, as the\u00a0Michigan<\/a>\u00a0resident very much appeared to be a typical young and\u00a0healthy<\/a>\u00a0adult.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Stan<\/div>\n

Stan Larkin lived 555 days without a heart. (CNN)<\/cite><\/div>\n

But a grey backpack Stan carried around everywhere, which may have looked so innocent, was actually keeping him alive.<\/p>\n

Stan didn’t let this slow him down, however, and enjoyed taking his three young children to the park, and even managed to play basketball with the backpack on.<\/p>\n

Inside of the bag was the power source for an artificial heart pumping in his chest.<\/p>\n

Stan’s real heart was removed from his body in November 2014, subsequently being replaced by a device that meant he didn’t have to stay in hospital while waiting for a transplant.<\/p>\n

His heart transplant finally arrived in May 2016 and had the procedure done at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center.<\/p>\n

“Most people would be scared to go so long with [an artificial heart], but I just want to tell them that you have to go through the fear, because it helps you,\u201d he\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0CNN shortly after the operation.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m going home so fast after the transplant because it helped me stay healthy before the transplant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"He<\/div>\n

He had to wait a while for a heart transplant. (Getty Stock Photo)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Unfortunately those waiting for a transplant make have to wait years for the necessary treatment, according to Dr. Billy Cohn, a cardiovascular surgeon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these patients have hearts that are so weak, the kidneys, liver and other critical organs will fail while they are waiting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

“Many of these patients would die without some form of support.”<\/p>\n

Stan needed the transplant due to a genetic form of heart disease called familial cardiomyopathy.<\/p>\n

The Michigan man didn’t even realize that his heart was suffering until 2007, when he collapsed during a basketball game without warning.<\/p>\n

Familial cardiomyopathy is ‘a heart disorder characterized by a heart that is enlarged in diameter and weak in pumping function,’ according to the Division of Cardiology.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jonathan Haft, the surgeon who operated on Stan, said the type of cardiomyopathy seen in Stan causes arrhythmias and failure on both sides of the heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stan Larkin had to wait well over a year for a heart transplant A man…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":146,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}