Francesco "showed up" today in Venice, the first patient in Italy to whom a heart that had stopped for 20 minutes was transplanted on May 11th at the "Gallucci" center in Padua.
It happened this morning during a press conference with the Venetian president, Luca Zaia, and with the president of "Gallucci", Gino Gerosa.
"I'm fine - said Francesco, 45 years old -, I speak slowly because the doctor tells me to. My life has changed, and I'm happy to have trusted the 'prof'. I immediately accepted the operation, after waiting for two years, I can say that the 'engine' works."
It was the first case in Italy with such long reactivation times of the heart muscle - 20 minutes plus 25 minutes of warm functional ischemia - and was followed by 17 other similar interventions at a national level.
"The fact that this technique not only worked but could be reproducible - commented Gerosa - gives us a lot of satisfaction as researchers".
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