READER’S DIGEST
T
ransplant recipient John
Bell knows exactly where
to find his first heart
- the damaged one he
lived with for 72 years.
It’s floating in an 11-litre jar of
formaldehyde at a storage facility at
Baylor University Medical Center in
Dallas, Texas, along with hundreds
of other human hearts.
When he returns to the hospital
for a check-up with his cardiologist,
Bell contemplates paying his old
heart a visit. Why? Because at
Baylor, the retired professional can
do something almost no one else
in the world has ever done. He can
hold his heart in his hands.
“It was fairly emotional, that
first encounter,” says Bell. “I can’t
actuallyexplainwhy.”
An innovative programme reunites transplant
patients with their former organs
They Held
Their Own Hearts
BY Lauren Young
FROM ATLASOBSCURA.COM
Bell is one of more than 70
heart-transplant patients who have
participated in Baylor’s Heart-to-
Heart programme. It was launched
in 2014 by Dr William C. Roberts,
executive director of the Baylor
Heart and Vascular Institute. Baylor
is unique in allowing transplant
patients to ‘meet’ their old hearts.
“Probably 99.5 per cent of hospitals
throw the hearts away after they
send out a report,” Dr Roberts says.
“We keep them all.” They are used
for further research: performing
second pathological examinations,
comparing the progress of different
diseases among individual organs,
and doing long-range studies.
The Heart-to-Heart programme
happened almost by accident.
With all those organs stored on the
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
34 august 2019