A female heart patient who received rare heart autotransplant surgery four months ago checked out of Cheng Hsin General Hospital Friday, going home with a strong "new" heart.
At a press conference, the patient, a 60-year-old housewife surnamed Chen (陳), said "to be alive is great" and that she thanked the Cheng Hsin heart surgery team led by Dr. Wei Jeng (魏崢) that enabled her to lead a healthy life again.
According to Wei, the director of Cheng Hsin's heart center, he and his team have previously completed two such heart autotransplants over the past two years, probably the only two cases in the world.
The team performed the first successful operation in November 1998 on a 37-year-old man who suffered a ruptured left ventricle following mitral valve replacement.
He has recovered satisfactorily with two years follow-up therapy.
The second such case was successfully completed in early August this year.
When performing autotrans-plant surgery, doctors first remove the defective heart from the patient's chest, "repair" it in an operation lasting no longer than six hours, and then put back the heart, according to Wei.
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