A new “patch” that is placed on damaged portions of a heart can help regenerate cardiac cells after a heart attack and regenerate heart function. This is pretty amazing stuff. Now if we can make the transition from rats to humans we could see a decrease in the need for heart transplants.
“Normally, adult human hearts do not regenerate because the heart doesn’t make more cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) after injury,” explained lead researcher Dr. Bernhard Kuhn, from the Department of Cardiology at Children’s Hospital Boston. “It would be desirable to induce the heart to make new cardiomyocytes after …read more

“I never thought I would get to see this mother’s day,” Stacey says.
What we don’t go through for our children! On this day, a Pennsylvania mommy celebrates what she thought might not ever come, her first mother’s day. Stacey Doyle delivered her first born son, Owen, last May. The days that followed were a mixed bag of emotions.
What should have been the happiest time in her life became a scary journey. Stacey developed cardiomyopathy after the delivery and went into cardiac arrest. She received 2 VAD, ventricular assist devices, and was put on the …read more

Thanks to more effective medicines and treatments, death among heart failure patients has halved over the last 6 years. Also, incidence of stroke and heart attack after discharge fell over the first half of this decade.
— The death rate for patients admitted with a severe heart attack, where the arteries are completely blocked, went down from 8.4 to 4.5 per cent.
– The risk of heart failure for severe heart attack patients also went down from 20 to 11 per cent.
– The death rate for patients admitted with a milder heart attack, where the arteries are only partially blocked, …read more