This is totally awesome:

A DYING heart patient has been saved after he was given an artificial heart and injected with his own stem cells, a British surgeon said yesterday.

The procedure – believed to be a world first – used stem cells in attempts to rebuild the damaged muscle in the heart.

Experts welcomed the development, but said more research was necessary before it could be more widely used…

Mechanical hearts – also known as left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) – are currently used temporarily to support the failing hearts of people waiting for a transplant…

Mr Westaby (from Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital) said that the use of the patient’s own cells, extracted from his bone marrow, represented the first time the two treatments had ever been combined.

Read more

It’s pretty unbelievable what we can do to keep people alive these days…