Submitted by harkhinz t3_yn6uev in askscience
caspy7 t1_iv98xn7 wrote
Reply to comment by Pyr0Duck in During heart transplanting, how does the body survive before the heart is replaced? by harkhinz
Did he mention which scriptures?
Pyr0Duck t1_ivafoih wrote
Yes, he did. But I can't remember the specific verses. It was actually an interesting story though. He said that when he was in medical school, it was taught that open heart surgery was impossible because the heart would stop as soon as it was touched. However, as he started his medical career, they discovered in animals that the heart could continue beating even if it was touched. So, as he was thinking about this, he was reading the scriptures and came across a scripture that essentially said that everything in the world is given a law and that even the plants and animals must abide by these laws. After reading that, he said that he felt impressed that if everything has a law, then the beating heart must also follow some laws or "rules". So, he began researching how muscles know when to contract, etc. and found that too much potassium tells the muscle to stop. However, once the potassium levels dropped, the muscle would start again. He said he had this sudden thought that that was the "law given to the heart" and so he started trying out this method. It ended up working really well and was key to making the heart and lung machine work in practice.
[deleted] t1_ivi8j9q wrote
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[deleted] t1_iv9gr9t wrote
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