Amazing Story Highlights the Progress We Have Made

In 1994, Hanna Clark had been waiting for so long to receive a heart transplant that time was running out for her, so doctors in Britain took a gamble. They grafted a donor heart atop her own, rationalizing that if they could allow Clark’s heart enough time, it might be able to regenerate itself. Ten years later, Clark developed cancer and the subsequent therapies needed to cure it caused her body to reject the donor heart. But when the doctors removed the heart, they found that Clark’s original heart was functioning perfectly—apparently having healed itself.

As I read her amazing story, so many elements struck me at once, but perhaps the most striking was Clark’s thank you to the surgeons who had performed the graft and subsequently removed the donor heart in which she said that they had given her back a normal life. This struck a deep chord in me, as I think it would with anyone who had at any time been considered different. As I age, I have more what would resemble a normal life, increasingly participating in ordinary day to day activities, doing everything that a normal teen would, from participating in book clubs to looking for a gym to seeking out a teacher to begin martial arts. However, when I was younger, there were many activities from which I was barred, not so much because of ability but because of people’s misconceptions about what I could do and fears about my safety. So the marginalization Clark must have felt, especially during the cancer treatment and during her recovery from the removal of the donor heart because of any activities she couldn’t participate in resonated with me.

I especially empathize with what she must have experienced after the removal of the grafted heart. At that point, she was just entering her teenage years, and the cruelty and peer pressure from other teens can be overwhelming. People say that teens are some of the cruelest people in the world because of their mockery of those who are different. But I think sometimes the feeling of exclusion may be the cruelest part of being different, not because of anything others might say, but of the things you cannot do. There’s a strange kind of ache, looking in from the outside and wondering if you’ll ever be a “normal” part of the crowd. As my horizons expand and I am able to do more and more, that ache has almost completely faded, but I will never forget it, and I will always empathize with those who are feeling it.

However, what struck me even more is how far we have come, medically, and how far we may yet hope to go. The first heart transplant was performed on December 3rd 1967. It lasted nearly nine hours, and the patient died afterwards due to complications. Now, it only lasts about four hours, and the number of people dying of complications is being lowered each year. More and more, artificial hearts are being created. These hearts simulate the procedure performed on Clark and also eliminate having to use an actual donor heart. This is especially important because the shortage of donor hearts was one reason that the procedure which saved Clark has not been widely used.

Looking at how far heart transplants have come in 42 years makes me wonder: how many advances will be made in the field of medicine within my lifetime? Scientists are trying to discover what precisely allowed Clark’s heart to regenerate. With this information as a catalyst, the strides that could be made in this field are almost endless. Already, a number of different institutions are attempting vaccines for various kinds of cancer; I wonder if, finally in my lifetime, we will find a cure for this ravaging, oftentimes, deadly disease.  

Even closer to my heart in many ways are the advances being made with stem cells. There is growing proof that if a young child with cerebral palsy is given the stem cells from their umbilical cord soon enough, it can greatly reduce the effects of, and sometimes completely reverse, cerebral palsy. I also wonder about the medical advances being made in preventing or reducing blindness. The BrainPort has been developed; there is also an experimental surgery wherein cameras are implanted in the eyes. If the lack of depth perception given by these cameras could be remedied, this might also be an excellent option.

With the growing amount of information we have about stem cells in relation to all sorts of diseases and conditions, and with the astonishing medical breakthroughs scientists are making in so many other areas, the horizon of science looks very promising. I look forward to seeing so much of this present research developing into cures and preventative techniques, and to seeing the curative and preventative techniques we already possess refined.