The curious case of the man who managed to survive without a heart for 555 days

One doesn't need to be a specialist to know the well-established fact that both the heart and mind need to be in the right place to keep a human being alive. This means that a person would probably die if the heart stops beating even for a few seconds. But in an astonishing turn of events, a young man from Michigan managed to survive 555 days without an actual heart in his body. According to CNN, Stan Larkin had a congenital heart condition and he required a heart transplant. However, after failing to find a donor in time, Larkin and the medical team aiding him sought out an alternative method to keep him alive.

Larkin underwent a heart removal surgery in November 2014 after which he was equipped with a special device that artificially pumped blood into his body. It kept Larkin going until he got a replacement heart in May 2016 to complete his transplant at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center. “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,” Larkin said. “I’m going home so fast after the transplant because it helped me stay healthy before the transplant.”

Larkin had no idea that he had a heart condition until nine years before the operation when he had collapsed while playing basketball. Further tests concluded that he was suffering from a condition called familial cardiomyopathy, which his 24-year-old brother Dominique has as well. In this condition, their heart muscles stretch and enlarge the area of at least one heart chamber and prevent the organ from pumping blood effectively.

“It’s an awful condition to have,” Dr. Jonathan Haft, a cardiac surgeon at the University of Michigan who operated on the brothers, told the outlet. “But the technology available and the technology that is evolving in the field of heart failure is very exciting. The total artificial heart falls into that category.” While Dominique received a heart transplant within six weeks of staying at the hospital, Larkin could return home and live a life outside the hospital before his heart transplant.

“I was shocked when the doctors started telling me that I could live without a heart in my body and that a machine was going to be my heart. Just think about it – a machine,” Larkin recalled. Larkin became the first person in Michigan to go back home with a device called The SynCardia artificial heart, which was placed inside his chest cavity and was connected to a 13-pound machine called the Freedom Driver. With this temporary heart, he could even play basketball and enjoy car rides with his friends like he used to. 

“It’s just like a real heart,” Larkin said. “It’s just in a bag with tubes coming out of you, but other than that, it feels like a real heart. It felt just like a backpack with books in it, like if you were going to school.” Meanwhile, Larkin's mother Voncile McCrae helped him to change the bandages on his body. “We had to be careful so that he wouldn’t get an infection,” McCrae stated. Larkin and his brother shared with the outlet that they are grateful for the help they received which helped them survive. “I have an amazing brother,” Dominique quoted. “He has been here with me since the beginning and has never let me down. I’m blessed to have him in my life.”