Human - Hybrids: What are Cheney's heart valve replacements?

[Wickerman]

Yes, he still has a heart, though, of course, it's obviously no longer human.

He has had heart valve replacement. Were those valves replaced with surgical steel or did they use pig valves? Heart valves are often replaced with pig heart valves.

If pig valves, was Bush referring to him when he cautioned us from further experimentation? :rofl:

Building body in heart valves

The heart pumps blood by contracting chambers inside it, forcing the blood out of one chamber and into the next. To keep the blood from flowing back wards, there are valves between the chambers which allow blood to pass in only one direction. Children are sometimes born with defective heart valves, or the valves can start to fail as people age. Valves from pig hearts (treated to remove as much of the foreign proteins as possible), or mechanical (non-degradable) heart valves can be implanted as replacements. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2001/20010305/plastic.shtml

I recall the late humorist Lewis Grizzard rather famously discussed his heart valve replacement surgery and found it funny that after so much BBQ he would have a pig heart. http://www.lewisgrizzard.com/

Jesse Helms also had a pigheart

Before his private 20-minute visit with Helms, with whom he has had a long friendship, Cheney paid tribute in his fund-raising speech to the retiring 80-year-old senator, who had an operation April 25 to replace a worn-out pig valve installed in his heart 10 years ago.

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Of course Pig Valves have provided longer life for many recipients and often they are even used in small children. This post is merely a chance to poke fun at Cheney and suggest that Bush* is as clueless as usual. Animal human transplants have been going on for decades and animal-human genetic research is an obvious continuum as we seek better ways to combat disease.

Please be sure to read this post by RGBolen for a more serious take on what Bush is actually doing and what his efforts might accomplish.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x293723

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Cheney has a heart? Who knew????

[petersjo02]

2. A technical note...

Pig valves used as replacement in human hearts have about a 10-year life span compared to stainless steel (mechanical) valves, which have an unlimited life span. People who are facing a decision about which valve they should select should think about whether they want to set themselves up to have open-heart surgery again in 10 years--no walk in the park--to replace a pig valve. When my husband got a valve 5 years ago at age 63, he was told by his surgeon that he didn't know how long a mechanical valve would last only because the first patient in whom he'd implanted one 30 years before was still going strong. After hearing that, the decision was a no-brainer. Pig valves are soaked in chemicals to remove the antigens that would cause rejection, and that very chemical soaking renders them dead tissue doomed to fail. I think this is Helms' third pig valve. Can't think he's looking forward, at age 80, to the surgery and painful recovery yet again.

[Wickerman]

3. true 'nuff

Grizzard, as mentioned in the OP died on the table as he was attempting to accept a 3rd, I believe valve.

Folks were originally told it would take ten years to find a replacement for pig valves and that matched the ten year "life" span. Grizzard, for whatever reason continued with the pigs even when they became available in stainless steel.

Welcome to DU, btw :hi:

Best to your husband.