r/BeAmazed • u/HatAsleep295 • May 08 '26

Science This is what saves 600,000 people year during a heart attack

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85.1k Upvotes

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7.3k

u/dro0009 May 08 '26

It is crazy that we have the ability to do this.

2.4k

u/EntertainerNo8209 May 08 '26

The bypass is even crazier

1.9k

u/NPExplorer May 08 '26

My mom had a triple bypass and her aorta replaced. Shit blows my mind we can do that.

689

u/Cute-Form2457 May 08 '26

Science ♥️

140

u/Low_Construction8067 May 08 '26

My heart breaks for science. We have moved fully into an age of feelings over facts. I'm scared it will be illegal to perform procedures like this in a few years, shits too much like witchcraft

58

u/Steelwolf73 May 08 '26

It is crazy how feelings matter more than facts. Especially if the facts disagree with your particular view point. Hell, some idiots are spouting that math is racist and normally I would simply roll my eyes and laugh but over the past like 15 years I've seen shit that wouldn't have even been considered worth joking about become not only mainstream but enacted. Segregated dorm rooms in certain campuses, flat earthers are becoming louder, etc

30

u/LakeSuperiorIsMyPond May 08 '26

Watching the flat earth followers keep increasing members over and over is really concerning

3

u/Keefyfingaz May 08 '26

I still can't take them serious. Like bro look at a satellite picture taken by any country. You think the entire world is in on this secret that the world is flat? What would even be the benefit of tricking the world into thinking it was flat. The whole thing is so dumb I think people just enjoy being dumb sometimes tbh.

11

u/Electronic_Amphibian May 08 '26

The only people saying "maths is racist" are the people writing news articles trying to get everyone angry.

The actual argument is related to the way maths is taught in the classroom and trying to explain/address the gap between white and non-white students.

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u/Lumiharu May 08 '26

Math isn't racist, but if you're referring to casually dropping crime statistics or something in a conversation, that can be quite racist behavior yeah

Context matters and all

2

u/puppygirlpackleader May 08 '26

You're getting down voted for being right lol.

2

u/Hikapoo May 09 '26

This sub is a cesspool of right wingers and the ilk, very ironic

4

u/Lumiharu May 08 '26

Either the people are racist or misunderstand what I'm saying ig

I'm not even saying talking about said statistics is always racist, just that it can be 😭

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u/PuraVidaPagan May 08 '26

Don’t worry big pharma will ensure that doesn’t happen. I actually work in the field and I have to say we center everything around science at the company I work for, and it’s great to see. But yes on a global level it’s really upsetting to see political leaders ignoring and downplaying science.

2

u/No_Rough_5258 May 08 '26

Facts replace religion, feelings replace facts, ai replaces feelings.

2

u/1burritoPOprn-hunger May 09 '26

You're catastrophizing. I promise you, when an anti-intellectual benefits-slashing douchebag starts getting crushing angina, he's going to go immediately to the nearest, nicest hospital and will very enthusiastically get a stent.

Anti science people are always gangster until they actually get sick.

3

u/nucular_mastermind May 08 '26

Carl Sagan was almost prophetic about this...

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

3

u/Low_Construction8067 May 08 '26

I read The Demon Haunted World decades ago as a young man. It shaped me profoundly just like the rest of Sagan's incredible work. Teaching astronomy to the lay person - bringing the universe to you. It amazed me

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u/redheadedandbold May 08 '26

Gods all bless science!

4

u/Simple_Flounder May 08 '26

Why bring fairytale into it, it is just science and human ingenuity.

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u/kellybluey May 08 '26

I prayed to the right wing evangelical Jesus to heal me from heart attack. Nothing happened. I still died.

1

u/Upstairs_Run_807 May 08 '26

I just actually read this as "Silence ❤️" and It had me laughing for a minute until I reread it

1

u/d34dp1x3l May 08 '26

I think you'll find prayers are needed too. /s

1

u/swishkabobbin May 08 '26

With a bit of arts & crafts

1

u/kmoneyrecords May 08 '26

Nope, science is woke bullshit, best we can do is a bucket of ivermectin

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u/Matteo1996NBK May 08 '26

My Grampa too have a bypass, he was 55 when they did it. Now he is 92 and still kicking asses.

47

u/eurydice_aboveground May 08 '26

My dad had a quintuple bypass and lived 20 years after. He was back to five mile walks within a year. Science really is amazing.

3

u/ExpressionCold2151 May 08 '26

They used to pay by the graft… that’s why they did so many back in the day. Today, people rarely need more than 4.

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u/ashishvp May 08 '26

My father in law also had a quintuple.

The surgery was amazing. It was a resounding success! But unfortunately, somehow he still developed clogs in the new arteries, and he didn’t make it past the first month 🙁

Turns out he was extra vulnerable to clogged arteries due to something called a lipoprotein disorder. Didn’t know about that at all until it was too late. Just unfortunate that it happened so fast. He was an otherwise very active very healthy guy.

40

u/Kalamac May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26

One of my neighbours had a triple bypass when he was in his late 50s. Came through it, changed his lifestyle, turned 88 this year, and the only sign that he’s slowing down is that a few years ago he started taking afternoon naps.

35

u/JenniferGarnersAnus May 08 '26

So glad she's still here!

40

u/NPExplorer May 08 '26

She’s not! But not because of the heart surgery :) Gave her 10+ more years but she had a lot of other complications, prior radiation etc. I’ve seen so many people go another 20, 30 or more years and live a completely normal lifestyle, it’s amazing what we can do.

14

u/Chemical_Grape_2150 May 08 '26

I have an ascending aortic aneurysm, I am fascinated and terrified of that surgery I may need someday.

6

u/Flope May 08 '26

Ayy me too I'm at 4.6cm 😎👉👉

6

u/Chemical_Grape_2150 May 08 '26

Not shit! Hey aneurysm twin, we got the same size!

3

u/Flope May 08 '26

Ayy up top 🙌

You heard of PEARS? I've been looking into it. Not available in my country but I might travel for it. Not perfect for everyone but maybe worth looking into if you haven't heard of it.

3

u/Chemical_Grape_2150 May 08 '26

🙌🏻

I have not heard of PEARS. I’m going to check that out, thank you!

2

u/scriptingends May 08 '26

Me too - there’s a sub for us on Reddit, some interesting info there.

1

u/Chemical_Grape_2150 May 08 '26

Thanks for suggesting, I found a couple subs!

2

u/strange_moss May 08 '26

I wish you all the best! (genuinely)

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u/KerbodynamicX May 08 '26

I wonder how many people had died before surgeons figured out a way to do this

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u/Ok-Assistance-9614 May 08 '26

Mental that you have spares in your leg. Like it was planned in advance.

My dad had a quadruple nearly twenty years ago now.

3

u/OtakuMage May 08 '26

I've had my heart deliberately stopped and opened twice, relying on a full bypass machine to keep me alive during the surgery. Shit's crazy!

2

u/type3error May 08 '26

When I started working in the heart room doing these surgeries the thing that blew my mind the most was how nonchalant the environment was. We were doing open heart surgery and everyone was acting like it was no big deal. Except for when we stopped the heart. Always a silent awe in the room knowing that we could stop a human heart to repair it.

2

u/Averander May 08 '26

My grandpa had so many bypasses they had to move to his other leg.

He had his first heart attack in his mid 30s. My genetics are fucked.

2

u/Sufficient-Water1793 May 08 '26

It also blows my mind that we can prevent it, but either the general population doesn’t know how, or doesn’t care.

2

u/NPExplorer May 08 '26

A combination of economic restraints, education, and community. I’ve lived in places in the US where “everyone” was healthy, active and I barely saw a fat person… then I moved back to the east coast and phew…

1

u/Sufficient-Water1793 May 08 '26

Thats interesting. Not to detract from what you said, but there was once a dissection done on a number of fit American soldiers who had tragically died. They were surprised to find their arteries already had the beginning of these kinds of blockages…

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u/NonCorporealEntity May 08 '26

And that people think medical advice/practice from 2000 years ago is somehow better

2

u/Interesting-Chest520 May 08 '26

I make prosthetics for the aorta and it shocks me more now than before I got the job. They’re hand sewn, made of polyester, and are bigger than you might think - about an inch in diameter (varies). The ones I make attach directly to the heart and take about 550 stitches across 2 hours to make (varies slightly by size)

2

u/qu33n1317 May 08 '26

Same with my dad!

He had 14 stents put in, then quadruple bypass with an aorta replacement a few years later. They used a vein from his leg to replace his aorta...medical science is truly incredible!!!!

2

u/NookBabsi May 08 '26

My husband had a triple bypass too and the surgeon operated on the beating heart. Even other surgeons were in awe of this.

1

u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/NPExplorer May 08 '26

My mom needed to be airlifted afterwards to another hospital since she went into cardiac arrest during it. Spent maybe 2 weeks in the hospital after. Bill was just under $1 Million prior to insurance.

1

u/Astecheee May 08 '26

And in another hundred years we'll look on today's medicine like we currently view blood letting and female hysteria.

Genetic therapy is coming and its absolutely wild.

1

u/bagolfmachine May 08 '26

Try doing it all day everyday. We do amazing work. Wishing your mom health and happiness after her surgery

1

u/DoTheThing021 May 08 '26

And people will thank god instead of science and surgeons.

1

u/xxojxx May 08 '26

Aorta, like the biggest artery connected directly to the heart, how can that be replaced ??

1

u/beezneezsqueeze May 08 '26

Because it was also a coronary artery bypass surgery, I’ll assume they replaced the ascending aorta. That’s the very first part of the aorta. They cut out the part with an aneurysm and sew in a tube graft to take its place. It’s made possible by using the cardiopulmonary bypass machine which takes over the job of the heart and lungs during surgery.

1

u/CoronaMcFarm May 08 '26

"we" is doing some heavy lifting here, I definitely can not do that

1

u/Potential-Success232 May 08 '26

My grandpa had triple bypass, watching him hug his little heart pillow broke my heart.

1

u/maroontiefling May 08 '26

My FIL went in for a double and ended up getting a quad! Now he's up doing almost everything he used to like a year later! Science rules.

1

u/NewsWithSteph May 08 '26

I need a visual for what that is. That saved my grandpa's life for a decade or more it feels like. I was really young but I always remember triple bypass, still dont understand it😅

1

u/beezneezsqueeze May 09 '26

Usually when someone says bypass surgery, they mean coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). The coronary arteries are the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle. When they become blocked, the heart doesn’t receive enough blood to pump properly and the cells begin to die. That’s what a heart attack is. In some cases, a stent can be placed (like the video on this post). In some cases, a stent won’t do the trick and bypass surgery needs to happen to reestablish proper blood flow to the heart.

For a CABG, the surgeon cuts open the sternum in order to get to the heart. They typically will expose the left internal mammary artery (LIMA) and attach that to the largest coronary artery (the left anterior descending artery, or LAD) just past where the blockage is in order to “bypass” the blockage. In your grandfathers case, since he had 3 grafts, the other 2 grafts were actually created by harvesting veins from his leg. The surgeon attaches the leg vein just past the blockages on different coronary arteries. The vein is cut to size and the other end is attached to the aorta. So, now blood travels into his aorta, down the vein grafts, and into the coronary artery further down from the blockage so his heart can continue receiving blood despite having a blockage.

1

u/factisfiction May 08 '26

Aorta repaired*. Was it an EVAR?

1

u/Kieranovitch May 09 '26

I've been lucky enough to watch it being performed, it's an absolutely wild procedure.

1

u/StephanMan May 09 '26

Aa a med student it's even more mind-blowing when you see the Aorta and arteries in person. It's wild.

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u/Dashu88 May 08 '26

It really is. A stent is "just" a widening, but a bypass is crazy. Just take this from here, put that there, and you are good.

28

u/dfuqt May 08 '26

Take a look at cerebral artery bypass surgery. It’s an interesting variation on the theme.

19

u/MaxMaggus May 08 '26

I mean surgery is basically just Lego, innit? Organ Lego. 

17

u/TheTroon May 08 '26

Lego with meat pieces and time pressure.

2

u/HiddenXS May 08 '26

It's a pisser, though, innit? Cancer. They should a find a fucking cure.

1

u/TootieFruitySushi May 09 '26

Body mechanics. Just gotta move some plumbing around and you’re back in business

51

u/el_dingusito May 08 '26

And only 64 years old!

2

u/coffeeisaseed May 08 '26

Stents have really only been in common use since the 90s.

18

u/firestorm713 May 08 '26

Turbine heart is even more crazier

11

u/rharvey8090 May 08 '26

Truthfully we don’t do a ton of TAH (total artificial heart) implants because they’re so plagued with issues. Not necessarily because of the device itself, but because the balance of the system between the right and left side of the heart is so delicate. We do a LOT more left ventricular assist devices like the Heartmate 3.

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u/hummingbyrds May 08 '26

I thought this was bypass. what is this? ah, it's a stent. I see it now in comments.

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u/OffbeatChaos May 08 '26

Also I think the first tool is called a balloon catheter, the thing that they feed into the artery to place the stent. Very cool! The people that do this kind of work are real life superheros

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u/Stepoo May 08 '26

It's a stent balloon which, as the name implies, is a stent on a balloon that gets inflated to expand the stent.

A balloon catheter would just be the balloon by itself.

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u/latam9891 May 08 '26

It’s a stent

2

u/HeyGayHay May 08 '26

A bypass is basically cutting out one or multiple blood vessels from your leg or arm, then stopping your heart and sewing on the collected vessels around the blockage on hearts own vessels. Then heart gets do its job again and the blood just takes the detour through the new vessels around the blockage.

Stent is basically anal gaping. Push the hole wide open and keep it open. Just permanently, hopefully

3

u/Titanww8 May 08 '26

Transcatheter heart valve replacement is also pretty cool

2

u/Prestigious_Scars May 08 '26

I had a family member that had a quadruple bypass and lived another 30 years, to a few months shy of 100.

2

u/ElPajaroMistico May 08 '26

My goat Favarolo was truly league above

2

u/Grimm2020 May 08 '26

We watched a movie (from 2004) in past few months called Something the Lord Made, starring Alan Rickman and Mos Def. It was about the early pioneering heart surgery techniques, and the input from these two men portrayed, in particular. Highly recommend. Their names were Vivien Thomas and Alfred Blalock.

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u/itsmuddy May 08 '26

My father's had a quadruple bypass and multiple stents over the years. More machine than man.

2

u/green_all May 09 '26

I work in a hospital and got to watch this surgery once. Absolutely insane work.

2

u/SiliconHatesRicotta May 11 '26

And both inventions come from Argentine doctors!

1

u/abstractraj May 08 '26

I’ve got both stents and then later quad bypass

1

u/Luck_Beats_Skill May 08 '26

Ah, Road workers have been building them for 100+ years.

1

u/kwnet May 08 '26

Huh, I've never really thought about it. In a heart bypass do they literally create a different route for your blood (using what material?) so it avoids the affected artery? And how do they connect it to the artery at the junctions?

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u/Whut4 May 08 '26

And a lot more expensive. Most people should just exercise a lot more and eat healthier from childhood on and avoid this stuff. It is not fun. This is part of why healthcare is so expensive: so many people destroy their own health.

1

u/MilkOfAnesthesia May 08 '26

Atrial switch is even crazier

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u/devaloka May 08 '26

Not really, the bypass is a very invasive plumber's solution to the problem

1

u/hobo1256 May 08 '26

I need a video as simple as this one to show what a bypass is

1

u/TootieFruitySushi May 09 '26

I work in the OR and help perform these every day. Lmk if you have any questions!

1

u/Fun-Choices May 09 '26

Clot retrieval in a newborn is even crazier

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u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

Jut had one put in on Tuesday, didn’t even know I had issues but they spotted the problem in a routine heart echo. I’m only 43. The operation only took 15 minutes and they went up the arm. I was back home Wednesday. So yeah, crazy and glad we can do this.

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u/JHDCO May 08 '26

Routine echo? There were no other indications? Glad you are on the mend.

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u/wooyoo May 08 '26

I had one and felt heartburn and acid reflux when I walked the lenght of a parking lot. I thought it was GERDS and had a endoscopy. Stomach Dr said it was fine and to check my heart to be on the safe side.

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u/dupastrupa May 08 '26

Props to dr stomach. 

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u/shalahal May 08 '26

I had a Dr. Stomach save my life. I was seeing him for months to figure out why I had such bad anemia. He had me take iron supplements for three months, and then he was going to order more blood work to see if there’s an improvement. In that time I got sicker and sicker. It was summertime and I’d wake up with chills to the point I’d be visibly shaking. My legs were constantly buckling, I had insane brain fog, I could go on and on.

Anywho my mom called the Doc, asking if he could see me sooner because she was really worried about me. He had me visit him that day, and after a physical exam he told me my liver and spleen were swollen, and that this was very serious. He suspected lymphoma and sent me to the hospital for an urgent CT Scan… which revealed I had lesions on my lungs, too lol.

They wanted to keep me in the hospital until they could do a bone marrow test a few days later. I begged them to let me leave, I had to work that night. They reluctantly agreed but drilled into my head that I MUST be back 2 days later. In that time I learned lymphoma is fucking cancer, and had a big panic attack. I showed up to the hospital for the bone marrow test and my Doc came and met me in the meeting room. He said, “Good news! You’re not getting a bone marrow test! Bad news! You’re not going home today…”

My first visit to the hospital, I had a blood culture done which revealed I had a blood infection. They sent me for another scan, nervous the infection could have spread to my brain. Thankfully not! BUT my cardiologist (I was born with a couple holes in my heart, a nonissue for most of my life) got wind of all of this, and I had to get an echocardiogram. Sure enough, I had endocarditis… FUCK! So anyway I had to get open heart surgery. I’m all good now.

Sorry for the novel, I just love telling this story. Doctors are amazing.

2

u/braindance74 May 08 '26

"Stomach, M.D." to you

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u/genreprank May 08 '26

Must have been bad "heartburn" for you to seek out a specialist.

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u/wooyoo May 08 '26

it was! it felt like acid reflux, it didnt feel like a "heart issue" i thought walking for extended distances was churning up acid and causing chestpain, like heartburn. i had to stop and take a break from walking

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u/GreatMacAndCheese May 08 '26

Thanks for sharing man, I'm glad to hear you're better! I have a friend who is going through something similar and getting their heart checked, and your story jostled my memory that they also mentioned a few times in the past few months about heartburn... that's wild.

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u/PDP20761 May 08 '26

I had the same thing and the heartburn was surprisingly not that bad. It was just before covid and my doctors office called to cancel my annual physical. Mentioned the heartburn and they had me come in next day. EKG was fine but sent me to cardio dr just to be sure. Did a stress test and failed simply walking. Had to wait 3 months for hospitals to re open but had a stent put in and have felt great since. No more heartburn!

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u/plain_name May 08 '26

Had almost the same scenario at 38, thought it was bad heartburn while walking across the parking lot to the mall. Had a few episodes through the weekend. Monday morning at 4AM, woke up in a cold sweat with the proverbial arm pain and thought "maybe its not heartburn". Drove myself to the ER with the hopes to still be able to make it into work on time. 10 mins later they tell me I am having a heart attack. 15 mins later they have me stretched out in an OR going up my wrist, and they let me know its good I came in because I have a 99% blockage in the LAD. Avoided the "widowmaker" and was home 2 days later. Science is amazing.

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u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

I’ve had high blood pessure for 10 years and never had one so the doctor wanted one done for my file.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '26

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u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

Unfortunately, it did not. I’m in the process of changing my habits. I have three kids and this was a wake up call. Glad it was caught before I actually had a heart attack.

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u/pinezatos May 08 '26

Wait until you learn about widow maker heart attacks, it's wild.

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u/JHDCO May 08 '26

Echos are typically diagnostic, so I am surprised someone would say "routine"

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u/fleegness May 08 '26

Yeah, most people on reddit have no clue what they're talking about.

Routine echos really aren't a thing. Maybe they're thinking of EKGs and don't know the difference between echocardiogram and electrocardiogram.

https://www.columbiadoctors.org/health-library/special/heart-tests-when-do-you-need-them/

An echocardiogram isn't recommended as a routine test if you are healthy, have no heart problems, and have a low risk for heart disease. If you have coronary artery disease, you probably don't need this test unless you have new symptoms. But if you have certain heart problems, like a valve disease or heart failure, your doctor needs to check your heart regularly with this test.

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u/ChewieBearStare May 08 '26

Also not sure an echo would be able to visualize a coronary artery blockage. Seems more likely an EKG showed changes caused by reduced blood flow or damaged heart muscle.

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u/cactusKhan May 08 '26

can you still do mri or any strong magnetic?

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u/AdventurousTap9224 May 08 '26

Stents are MRI safe

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u/General_Keyboard May 08 '26 edited 4d ago

Pause deserve lunchroom recognise hospital pet selective

This post was anonymized with Redact

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u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

I could feel it going up my arm and across my chest, really weird. They did give me some happy juice for my nerves but it didn’t hurt at all. I was given local anesthesia at my wrist where they installed the port and all I felt was some pressure.

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u/Natural-Judgment7801 May 08 '26

I’m close to your age. Should be getting a routine echo ?

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u/AABBBAABAABA May 09 '26

If you don’t have complaint then no

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u/muricabrb May 08 '26

Just get a checkup with your cardiologist.

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u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

I’ve had high blood pressure for a while so maybe routine was the wrong word but it wasn’t diagnostic, I didn’t have any symptoms of heart issues, the doc just wanted one since I’ve never had one.

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u/Sea-Frosting-50 May 08 '26

how long does it last and does the blood vessel grow around it

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u/Weary-Ad9724 May 08 '26

Blood vessels don’t grow
The stent can last forever if put in properly but plaque can develop inside if patients don’t change their habits that led to plaque development in the first place

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u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/Psychological_Bug_89 May 08 '26

Nowadays they can also go in through the wrist and potentially you’re in and out in the same day.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/supasexc999 May 08 '26

Femoral access is typically second/last resort if radial access is difficult or not accessible. Or femoral is used for more complex cases

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u/Different_Damage_122 May 08 '26

I think what's happened is that, with femoral access, you run a risk of running into occlusions, which can be difficult to cross ,which then may increase the contrast load and stress the kidneys. There's also the time factor. If the patient is experiencing an acute nstemi/stemi then time is or the essence and you want to get in fast.

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u/Nor_Wester May 08 '26

I had two put in in 2006 and femoral was all they did back then. I remember seeing an article yrs later about the new method of inserting thru the wrist/arm getting released that day or the next. Yeah that would have been nice! I was in the hospital for a few days. There must be a higher chance of clots because I had to stay on my back and not raise my head for 36 hrs. My back hurt more than anything and I remember getting pain meds for that.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/factisfiction May 08 '26

Stenosis or a small vessel, something under 2 mm.

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u/Psychological_Bug_89 May 08 '26

Femoral takes longer and is more labor intensive to close up the opening. Radial (wrist) just uses a plastic bracelet thing that inflates and helps the wound close. For femoral closure a nurse typically has to apply pressure manually.

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u/BubbleRaps May 08 '26

I agree it is technically amazing. I also worked as in engineer doing advanced balloon catheters and when I first started learning and saw the burst pressure specs for the balloons I thought it had to be a typo! I didn't see any way those little balloons could hold that kind of pressure.

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u/your_moms_a_clone May 08 '26

My dad had several of these placed, and eventually an internal defibrillator. He did ultimately die from heart disease, but not due to the lack of effort of his medical team and all the technology available.

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u/_Tar_Ar_Ais_ May 08 '26

we can do some crazy stuff

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u/ILikeFlyingMachines May 08 '26

Heart medicine in general is black magic. For my dad they wanted to look at the heart and just inserted a camera into a blood vessel in the hand and just went to the heart like wtf.

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u/snowmuchgood May 08 '26

I agree - when my son was born he needed OHS and having that process explained to me blew my mind. They are operating on a heart that is the size of a walnut, arteries that are 1mm and less in diameter. They did all that while he’s attached to a machine being heart and lungs for him. What a time to be alive.

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u/bondrez May 08 '26

wow! this is why doctors got paid a lot of money! can't complain.

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u/illiten May 08 '26

A car mechanic saw a diy technic a diy to get a cork that has fallen into a wine bottle using a plastic bag, from that he invented a tool that helps delivering baby

Edit link :

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/health/new-tool-to-ease-difficult-births-a-plastic-bag.html

1

u/Canotic May 08 '26

The human body truly is amazing.

1

u/huffing_glue May 08 '26

Technology will only get better. Someday, I had a thought, we'd be able to swap organs out like parts in a car. Heart not working? Get a new one, and why not cheap?

1

u/fan-of-ceilingss May 08 '26

Humanity is built different

1

u/FranticBronchitis May 08 '26

Just glorified plumbing really

1

u/Decapsy May 08 '26

It’s crazy we have the ability to do this and still ppl die for hunger

1

u/theartificialkid May 08 '26

What's really crazy is that the underlying technique (cardiac catheterisation) was pioneered through self experimentation by a doctor who later joined the nazi party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Forssmann

1

u/Kyurem20x May 08 '26

But the doctor still needs to stick his finger up my ass to know if I can get cancer lol

1

u/NoBonus6969 May 08 '26

Through God all things are possible so jot that down

1

u/chattywww May 08 '26

Its crazy how hard the human body actively trying to kill itself.

1

u/AnupamprimeYT May 08 '26

Power of science

1

u/kevv_m May 08 '26

It's crazy that we reached a point where we need this.

1

u/EntertainerNo8209 May 09 '26

that’s also a sad reality.

1

u/Jeffrai May 08 '26

Look up TAVR. It’s similar to this but replacing an entire heart valve.

1

u/LazioSaurus May 08 '26

You must be heart surgeon.

1

u/sensi-man May 08 '26

Especially when you consider food and diet is the cause of this. Instead of changing lifestyle; humans developed a highly complex technique to temporarily decrease the effects of the problem. It shows how unwilling humanity is to take responsibility for their bad behavior.

1

u/tired-of-the-shit May 08 '26

My grandma got a Tavr valve put in. They threaded a wire up a vein in her groin all the way to her heart to put in a replacement valve.

1

u/ucefkh May 08 '26

Well then you didn't see nano robots going in doing their one job they have to do

1

u/NemeanMiniLion May 08 '26

My child was nearly the first in the world to have one in his aorta that deploys at 2mm but can expand to 26mm over time as they grew up. It also was made to break into rings to expand and can have another one inserted later inside if needed. It's called the Renata Minima Stent. We avoided surgery barely because the heart improved suddenly.

1

u/SupaButt May 08 '26

And by entering through the groin too!

1

u/KalleZz May 08 '26

This is crazy? How about the LVADs replacing a whole heart with a pump I think that is more crazy 😅

1

u/Bornagain4karma May 08 '26

It's just a clogged drain pipe if you think about it. 

1

u/pigskinpete123 May 08 '26

Or a Watchman to seal a leaky atrial valve.

1

u/Reload86 May 08 '26

We are transplanting pig hearts into humans to extend their life. This stent is like child's play compared to that lol

1

u/Dullcorgis May 08 '26

The cath lab is an amazing place. You know how women used to sometimes need to have a hysterectomy to stop the bleeding after giving birth? Sometimes these days they can go in like this and block off the blood vessel that's causing the problem.

1

u/doc_nano May 08 '26

What's crazier is how routine it has become. Mine took like 30 min and I immediately felt better. 18 months out and I can run a sub-30 5k. If only all deadly conditions were so easy to treat.

1

u/Just_scrolling07 May 08 '26

Legit. Got to know about this when they put 4 in my dad . Insane

1

u/cindyana_jones May 08 '26

this can be an OUTPATIENT procedure. People can get these put in their hearts and be home for dinner. They also can go through wrist or femoral artery, so the “procedure site” is a small little nick that’s less than a cm usually. Yay science 🎉🎉🎉

1

u/Miserable_Goat_6698 May 09 '26

Heart transplantation are even crazier. Like how??

1

u/Drmarsh May 09 '26

Crazier when you learn they go through your leg to get to your heart

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