He fixed his own heart
(Image from ExStent)
Tal Golesworthy has Marfan syndrome, a condition that affects the body’s connective tissue, including tissue in the heart.
Like other Marfan sufferers, Golesworthy had an enlarged and weakened aorta and was in danger of aortic dissection. He feared having surgery to insert a composite aortic root graft, but what he feared more was the accompanying need to take anticoagulant drugs for the rest of his life.
A boiler engineer based in the U.K., Golesworthy knows a thing or two about plumbing. He worked with physicians and ultimately developed a bespoke porous textile mesh that takes the shape of a model based on the patient’s aorta so it perfectly fits around the outside of that aorta. This personalized external aortic root support is known as ExoVasc and Golesworthy was the first patient implanted with it. Because the device is external, the aorta need not be cut, and should not expand further, according to Golesworthy. Its implantation takes about two hours compared with up to six hours for a composite aortic root graft that retains the patient’s valves.
The more complicated surgery also requires the patient to go on a heart-lung bypass machine and to undergo total body cooling.
We work on the beating heart,” Golesworthy said during a TED talk that has had more than 1.4 million views. “No breaking into the circulatory system… My aorta is fixed. I’m not going to worry about it, which is a rebirth for me.”
