Too ill for organ transplant, woman carries her heart in backpack

A British mother has had a life-changing operation so radical, she now effectively carries her heart in a backpack.

Selwa Hussain, 39, has become the second-ever person in Britain to be given an artificial heart after a six-hour operation.

A battery-powered pump and electric motor inside the 6.8kg bag pushes air through tubes to feed plastic chambers in Selwa’s chest.This pushes blood around her body.

The mum-of-two, from Ilford, east London, was taken to Harefield Hospital, west London, in July after suffering heart failure.

She was too ill for a heart transplant and her husband, Al, agreed she be given an artificial organ.

Selwa’s diseased natural heart was removed by surgeons and replaced with an artificial implant and the specialist unit on her back at the hospital, famous across the world for its heart and lung centres.

It cost £86,000 ($116,000) to make in the US.

“I was so ill before and after the surgery that it has taken me all this time to get fit enough to come home,” Selwa said.

“Harefield have been absolutely magnificent. They came up with a solution that allowed me to stay alive to see the New Year with my family. For that, I am eternally grateful.”

Medics concluded Selwa’s sudden heart failure was caused by a condition called cardiomyopathy that can, in very rare cases, be triggered by pregnancy.

The first person in the UK to have been given an artificial heart was a 50-year-old man in 2011.

The surgery was performed at Papworth Hospital near St Neots, Cambridgeshire.

Comments

Billionaire businessman denies funding Obasanjo’s coalition

Billionaire businessman and founder of Aiteo Group, Mr. Benedict Peters, has denied social media reports that he is funding the new coalition reportedly being headed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Peters said this in a statement on Friday night. He said, “For the record, I wish to state, categorically and unequivocally, that I am not a financier of the said organisation or any socio-political partisan association or political party in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. “As an international businessman of repute, I have deliberately stayed away from politics preferring, instead, to focus and give my all to the development of my business interests across the African continent. “Corporate Social Responsibility contributions has seen the Aiteo Group, which I lead, provide investment support in medicine and medical research dedicated to seeking cures for several ailments which affect the African continent as well as investment in sport and sport as a panacea for the develop...

It's time to 'embrace an android' says Labour's deputy leader

Worried that a robot will one day take your job? Don't fear says a senior politician who is urging people to "embrace an android". If machines can take over routine tasks, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson believes, it will liberate people to focus on areas generating more wealth. If properly regulated, he says the growth of automation could create as many jobs as it will eliminate" "I suppose what I am really saying is - robots can set us free." A report earlier this year suggested 30% of British jobs could be threatened by automation by 2030, compared with 38% in the US and 21% in Japan, with manufacturing and retail at the greatest risk. Corbyn: Let workers control robots Will a robot take your job? But Mr Watson, who is also Labour's culture spokesman, said he was much more optimistic that technological change could be a force for economic and social good. Speaking at the launch of a new report into the future of work in the 21st Century, he ...

World’s first sex shop shuts down, declares bankruptcy

Germany’s pioneering sex shop chain, Beate Uhse, said Friday that it has filed for insolvency, as the empire started by a female World War II pilot fails to rise to the challenge posed by erotic e-commerce. In its hey day, the group sold lingerie, erotic films and sex products. Uhse began her foray into erotic business in 1946, when she put together a pamphlet called “Document X” describing how women could avoid pregnancy. In post-war Germany, her advice was in high demand and she sold thousands of copies of her brochures. The mail order business thrived and the former fighter pilot and member of the Luftwaffe opened in 1962 her first shop in the German town of Flensburg. Named Institute of Marital Hygiene, the store selling lingerie and contraceptives became the world’s first sex shop. Her activities often ran counter to the morality of post-war Germany and she was called before the courts in thousands of legal suits filed against her. Yet she remained frank and unashamed about...

hakdown07

Search This Blog