Author: Riding a pig to dig a hole

After 60 years of hard service in the human world, Zhao Hong's heart stopped working.

From the heart surgeon's perspective, this is perfectly normal.

The human heart beats 60 to 100 times per minute, and the work done in pumping blood in a lifetime is equivalent to lifting a 30,000 kilogram object to the top of the Himalayas.

If it were a machine, it would have been broken long ago.

It is truly a miracle of nature that it can last for 60 years.

In fact, as early as ten years ago, Zhao Hong began to feel inadequate.

Over the years, a serious heart disease caused him to live a life of no quality at all.

At the beginning, after going up two floors, I felt weak and couldn't open the door.

Later, I couldn't breathe in the middle of the night and was hospitalized repeatedly.

Now, he can barely walk and becomes out of breath if he moves even a little bit. He has to go to the ICU once a month to save his life.

Accompanied by his son, he traveled to hospitals across the country, and every hospital gave him a critical illness notice. The doctor made it clear that only a heart transplant would give him a chance of survival.

"A normal person's heart is like a balloon. It reaches its limit when it reaches 80. Your heart failure has reached 79. Even if you just sit in bed and don't move, your heart may rupture at any time. Once it breaks, your heart will be gone."

After returning from Beijing Anzhen Hospital, the words of the director of cardiology kept echoing in his mind, making him completely fall into despair.

Finding a heart to take over has become his greatest wish.

However, the reality is cruel.

Finding a suitable donor heart for transplantation is extremely difficult.

There are tens of millions of heart failure patients in China, and 5% of them will develop severe heart failure and enter the waiting list for heart transplantation.

There are only hundreds of hearts available for transplant every year, and many heart failure patients die while waiting for a heart transplant.

Out of a hundred patients waiting for a heart transplant, only one will get one.

Zhao Hong waited for ten years, but he still couldn't find a matching heart.

In the end, even he gave up and lay helpless in bed every day, using a lot of drugs to maintain his remaining life.

He knew in his heart that his heart was extremely fragile.

As the doctor said, his heart failure has now reached the level of 79.9999. His heart is like a glass bottle full of cracks. Even a slight cough can completely break it into a pile of slag.

After heart failure, other organs such as the liver, kidneys, lungs, stomach, etc. will also begin to decline in function and gradually fail.

For patients with end-stage heart failure who rely solely on oral drug treatment, the 1-year survival rate is only 15%.

On this day, Zhao Hong was lying in bed and sleeping in a daze when he was suddenly awakened by a phone ringing.

He listened for a while and it seemed that his son's cell phone rang.

I vaguely heard my son talking, and the words "heart failure", "animal experiments", "clinical use", "pig and sheep" were heard.

He thought it was his son who was consulting another doctor, so he stopped paying attention and stared at the ceiling in a daze.

At 60 years old, there is not much hope for a heart transplant.

At this age, even if there is a matching heart, it is difficult to give it to him, and younger patients will be considered.

Unless no one really wants this heart, it will be his turn.

Even if he thought about it with his heels, he knew that this kind of thing couldn't happen.

Even if you are lucky enough to find a heart suitable for transplantation.

What greeted him was also a race against time.

You must know that the heart is the most difficult organ to preserve, and the hearts used for transplantation are all harvested from brain-dead people.

The heart begins to deteriorate the moment it is taken out of the donor's body.

Under conventional frozen storage conditions, its shelf life is only 4-6 hours, during which doctors must complete the entire transplantation process.

Not every recipient happens to be there, so more than half of the world's donated hearts are damaged during transportation due to excessive ischemia time, and ultimately cannot be used for transplantation.

Even if the patient is barely able to work, the longer the ischemia time, the worse the effect after transplantation and the higher the mortality rate.

It can be seen that for a successful heart transplant operation, the right time, location, people and people are all indispensable.

If the patient is very lucky, the donor happens to have died in the same hospital, and the doctor is highly skilled, he can complete a heart transplant operation that is considered the pinnacle of surgical difficulty within 4 hours.

The matter does not end here. After the operation, the patient still needs to take anti-rejection drugs for life to suppress his own immune system.

If the medicine is not taken on time, or if any infection occurs, all efforts will be ruined.

During this period, the surgery cost almost 600,000 yuan. In the later period, I continued to take anti-rejection drugs, which cost tens of thousands of yuan a year. And I had to pay for it out of pocket, which ordinary families simply could not afford.

"The operation fee is 600,000 yuan, and the rejection drugs are 40,000 yuan a year, which is 1 million in ten years. The life span of a heart transplant should be more than 10 years. If I live to 75 years old, it will cost at least 1.2 million yuan. If there are other problems in the future,

, and it will cost more.”

"If it really doesn't work, I can only sell my retirement home..."

Zhao Hong thought to himself, calculated the number again and again, and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

I have worked hard all my life and saved some savings. Over the years, I have spent all my money on medical treatment. Only the house is worth a little bit, and I will probably have very little left after the medical treatment.

Everything I have gained in 60 years, I still have to spit it out when I get old and pay it back exactly, and in the end I have lost nothing.

What has happened in this life?

I can't even ask for this kind of opportunity to go bankrupt. I can't wait for ten years. I don't have that kind of fate, haha.

Zhao Hong was feeling sorry for himself when he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps. He looked up and saw his son rushing in with excitement on his face.

"Dad, good news, my cousin just called me and you are saved!"

Zhao Hong's eyes suddenly shone, he grabbed his son's hand and said tremblingly.

"Wait, wait for the heart?"

The son nodded crazily: "I've been waiting for it, finally I've got an artificial heart."

"Huh?" Zhao Hong was immediately disappointed and let go of his hand: "Isn't it a heart transplant?"

The son quickly said: "Dad, this is not an ordinary artificial heart, it is the latest artificial heart developed by Sanqing Group, Sanqing, Sanqing, did you hear it?"

Zhao Hong waved his hand impatiently: "I know, isn't it a ventricular assist device?"

"Have you forgotten what the doctor said? The artificial heart is useless to me."

The son explained patiently: "I know, but Sanqing's artificial heart is different."

"The doctor once said that the artificial hearts on the market now are all left ventricular assist devices, which are of little use to people like you who have both left and right ventricular failure. Only a foreign total artificial heart can be used, but

That one is temporary and can only be used for a period of time while waiting for transplantation, and it won’t be used for too long.”

"Don't worry, my cousin told me very clearly that Sanqing is a fully artificial heart that can completely replace the heart's function. Even if the heart stops beating, it can make the blood pump again."

Zhao Hong's eyes widened. These words contained too much information, and it was difficult for him to digest them for a while.

But the only thing he understood was that Sanqing's artificial heart could be used on him.

Seeing that he was still in a daze, his son took out his cell phone and handed it to him.

"Sanqing's artificial heart has been used in animals. Look at this sheep. It looks ordinary and has nothing abnormal. In fact, its heart has been removed and replaced with Sanqing's artificial heart.

.”

Zhao Hong took the phone with trembling hands and looked at the screen.

This is a place that looks like a laboratory, with two very ordinary-looking sheep standing inside a metal fence.

The only abnormality about the two sheep is that there is something like a power bank hanging around their necks, and nothing else.

Zhao Hong frowned: "Isn't this an ordinary sheep? Is there anything strange about it?"

"Don't worry, look back, the surgery will be done soon."

The image of two sheep flashed by, and then there was an operating table, with a sheep lying on it and falling into a deep sleep, and a group of medical staff busy beside it.

Open the chest, remove the left and right ventricles, install the artificial heart, start it, close the chest...

A series of pictures appeared in front of his eyes, making Zhao Hong's breathing become rapid.

Before he finished watching the video, the phone slipped from his hand. He clutched his chest and gasped for air.

"Dad, Dad, no matter what! I'm sick again."

When the son saw something was wrong, he quickly took his mobile phone and dialed 120 emergency number.

Seeing that his old father was sent to the ICU again because he was too excited, he couldn't help crying and laughing, and called his cousin Dr. Zhao again.

"Brother, I'm afraid dad is really going to die this time. Please help me contact him as soon as possible. Please!"

******

"Okay, okay, Mr. Wang, thank you very much."

Dr. Zhao hung up the phone, his hanging heart finally falling.
To be continued...