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The heart is a vital organ in the body.
Usually people are pronounced dead when their heart stops beating.
So, what if we didn't have one?
Hello and welcome back to Life's Biggest Questions, I am Rebecca Felgate and today
we're asking, can you live without a heart.
Before we jump into this big biological answer for you, I want to check that you guys are
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Hearts keep humans and most animals alive.
We breathe in Oxygen which is diffused into our blood from cells in our body.
The heart works by pumping oxygenated blood around the body, keeping it alive and healthy.
It also works to pump away all of the carbon dioxide produced when we breathe in too, pumping
deoxygenated air to the lungs, which is defused in the walls of the alveoli, ready to be exhaled.
Our heart is crucial control centre in the natural machine that is our body.
Without it, the body would have no way of transporting blood and oxygen, which would
mean organs, including the brain, would die and our blood would congeal.
The longest we can survive without the heart pumping blood around the body is approximately
4 minutes.
This is the amount of time the brain can go without oxygen before brain cells start dying.
This is why some people revived after 4 minutes live, but suffer severe brain damage.
In short, we can live without a heart for little under 5 minutes….
UNLESS….
Well… that is the big unless ladies and gentlemen, because once again science makes
the impossible possible…there is a small handful of people who have lived without heart.
The concept of artificial hearts has been discussed and experimented on by scientists
since 1937 when an artificial heart was inserted into a dog by Soviet scientists.
More recently, Doctors started testing a continuous flow device in a number of cows.
This was a heart like contraption that used blades to control and circulate blood flow.
In 2011, this device was installed into a very ill patient, Craig Lewis, who was suffering
with a heart condition and was told he was about to die.
When the Continuous Flow Device was installed into 55 year old Lewis, he became the world's
first heartless man.
When Doctors listened to his chest he had no pulse, but blood was being pumped around
his body allowing him to live.
Sadly, he did die after 5 weeks, but this was as a result of underlying health issues.
A bigger success story, while waiting for a heart transplant, fitness model Andrew Jones,
had an artificial heart and pacemaker in a backpack.
Not only was he living without a heart, he managed to maintain a fit body, which is incredible.
He once said "I'm pretty much the best looking zombie you'll ever see."
Similarly, a 25 year old American called Stan Larkin lived with an artificial heart for
almost 2 years before receiving a heart.
There are some species that don't need hearts.
Jellyfish, for example, don't have hearts, nor do sponges, or flatworms.
These animals have other circulatory systems, but as humans do not work in this way.
So, in answer to our question, humans can indeed live without hearts so long as they
have a heart like device that is able to pump blood in a way that a heart would do however
at the moment these seem only temporary fixes for people awaiting transplants.
Although, as with all medical advancements, who knows what the future of science may hold.
Perhaps one day we will create an artificial heart good enough to allow us to live without
a real one.
So, that is one big question answered for you.
What would you like to ask us next?
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Thanks for tuning into this video!
I am Rebecca Felgate, I'll catch you in the next video but for now make sure you like
this video, and of course, stay curious, stay alert and never ever stop questioning.
Thanks for watching to the end of this video!
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