More recently, the press reported that some American researchers are confident that people with two hearts could become the founders of a new race.
They believe that as a result of mutations, humans can develop a second heart, which will perform the same functions as the first, but in addition, take over all the work if the first fails. That is, it would be an extremely healthy mutation.
Medicine recognizes that such people were born in the past, and in our time, such people are not officially registered. But nevertheless, information about people with two hearts leaks in the press from time to time.
Some of these owners of a duplicate organ for a long time lived without even knowing about their uniqueness - their health made it possible not to go to doctors, and the body, thanks to the presence of a second heart, became more resilient and easier to cope with physical exertion. How and why did this happen?
In addition to the extra leg
In 1905, a 35-year-old American carpenter by the name of Durr posted an advertisement in the newspapers that he was ready to bequeath his body with two hearts to anyone who paid big money. He was examined by several experts, and the conclusions were unanimous - Durr really has two hearts, while the carpenter is absolutely healthy.
A group of doctors offered him $ 10,000 for an operation to extract one of the hearts during his lifetime. But the unique man prudently refused, fearing the consequences of surgery.
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In 1844, George Lippert was born in Germany - the famous man with three legs. He worked in the circus of the largest American hoaxer Phineas Taylor Barnum, where they showed many unusual people (for example, the Russian boy Fyodor Yevtishchev, who was born with a hairy face resembling a dog's face).
Only in 1906, when George Lippert died, an autopsy revealed that two hearts were located in his chest - neither he himself nor his entourage even knew about it.
There is evidence of the existence of such a person in pre-revolutionary Russia - in 1911, a guide to surgery was published in Yekaterinburg, where it was reported about the rural paramedic Vladimir Ognivtsev, who had two hearts, and even a diagram of the movement of blood in his body.
Medical record
With the development of medical technology, evidence of people with two hearts has been supported by authoritative examinations using the most accurate instruments.
In 1967, in the Yugoslav city of Zarkov, located near Belgrade, during a routine medical examination at school, a second heart was found in the boy Ramo Osmani, which was on the right and had the form of a mirror image of the main organ.
The X-ray examination revealed that both hearts are less than normal for this age, but their clear joint work ensures stable good blood circulation. The boy looked healthier and stronger than his peers.
Now Ramo Osmani is already an adult. He is still regularly examined and studied by doctors. But, in addition to this phenomenon, Ramo's body does not differ too much from others. Rameau is more resilient than ordinary people, but when he feels tired he needs a longer rest.
In 2004, a second heart was found in a one-year-old boy from Georgia, and a few years later - in a 50-year-old man from Ukraine. Moreover, the Georgian baby had one organ of blood circulation in the chest, and the other in the abdominal cavity. But this did not in any way interfere with their joint normal functioning.
In January 2004, a number of Russian newspapers published the news about 47-year-old Ziaudin Yandiyev, a resident of the village of Inarki, Malgobeksky district of Ingushetia, who was found to have two hearts. He rarely went to doctors, although he once served in the army and, of course, underwent a medical examination.
But none of the doctors paid attention to Yandiev's amazing anomaly. Everyone habitually applied a stethoscope to the left side of the chest - and determined the parameters of the circulatory organ, not suspecting that it was not the only one.
Only at the end of 1999, when Ziaudin was admitted to the Nalchik hospital due to blood poisoning, the doctor noticed that during the cardiogram taking one of the electrodes abruptly moved to the right, and found that the patient had two hearts!
After the cure, Ziaudin Yandiev underwent a full examination, which did not reveal any other pathology. An entry appeared in his medical file: "A patient Yandiev, born in 1956, was found to have two hearts - on the right and on the left."
In 2004, Zyaudin Yandiev was hospitalized with a heart attack in both hearts. He recovered pretty quickly, but the doctors who commented on this event in the press noted: a simultaneous heart attack confirms that two hearts in the body behave as one and constitute a single system.
Double stop
In 2010, an elderly man was admitted to the emergency department in Verona. For reasons of medical confidentiality, his name and surname were not included in the media. The patient was found on the street, he experienced loss of consciousness, shortness of breath and low blood pressure. The doctors suggested a heart attack and administered drug therapy.
During the examination, it was found that the man had two hearts. The chosen medicine, due to a medical error, had the opposite effect - both hearts stopped. But doctors with the help of a defibrillator managed to make them beat again, after a while the man recovered and left the clinic.
It turned out that he was not born with two hearts - the second organ was donor, transplanted several years ago. The transplanted heart took root well and, as a result, caused the stable work of the “native” circulatory organ, the condition of which improved dramatically. The injected wrong medicine provoked a stop of the "native" organ, followed by a failure in the work of the backup heart.
Unique operations
Surgeries in which doctors leave a patient's heart in place and transplant the other into the right side of the breast are rare.
One of them was held in London in 1996. The famous heart surgeon Magdi Jakub performed a transplant of someone else's heart to two-year-old Hannah Clark.
Hannah Clarke
The girl's own heart was twice its normal size and could not withstand the stress. Magdi Yakub left it in place and transplanted the donor organ into the right side of the breast.
Hannah Clark has lived with two hearts for 10 years. But in 2006, she began a reaction of rejection of the donor organ (precisely because of the possibility of such a situation, the surgeon did not remove the “native” heart).
Magdi Yakub was already a pensioner and did not perform an operation, but only consulted doctors. The results of the operation amazed the doctors. It was assumed that they would be able to either suppress the reaction of rejection, or start the girl's own heart. The operation was surprisingly easy, instead of the planned several months, Hannah after her lay in the clinic for only five days.
It turned out that over 10 years of the donor organ's work, the girl's heart rested and recovered, but the main thing is that when paired with a “double”, it gradually became the same in all respects! As a result, the donor heart turned out to be unnecessary - and the body began to reject it.
After removing the extra second heart, Hannah quickly recovered and even began to actively play sports.
In March 2009, a similar operation was carried out in the Brazilian city of São Paulo. Surgeon Alfredo Fiorelli performed a donor heart transplant, leaving the heart of a 53-year-old patient in place and connecting the two circulatory centers with vessels. Now the former patient feels normal, the doctors who are observing him note that the worn-out "native" heart works much better than before.
Amazing brothers
A unique case took place in Irkutsk. Elvira Chernikova, who was looking for her cousin, told about him through the newspapers. The boy was born to her aunt Valentina Dedyukhina in 1937. The doctor who examined him persuaded the woman to abandon the child, since he had two hearts, and the doctor assured the mother that the baby with such a pathology simply would not survive.
Valentina Dedyukhina signed a refusal, but just a few months later she regretted it and started looking for her son. It turned out that the boy disappeared along with the same gynecologist who had supposedly adopted him. The times were difficult, and the mother, who had filed a refusal from her son, did not apply to the law enforcement agencies.
A few years later, sister Valentina Dedyukhina also had a son with two hearts! Elvira Chernikova says that now, although he is rather elderly, he is a healthy man, and both hearts are working properly. Now she is trying to track down that cousin who disappeared in 1937.
This story gives reason to assume that the phenomenon of two hearts may have some connection with genes - after all, the birth of human phenomena happened in sisters.
Victor SVETLANIN, "Secrets of the XX century" magazine