I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Are you a candidate for heart transplant surgery? According to the American Heart Association, a heart transplant may be indicated for a person who has a damaged heart and is at risk of dying. Isn’t that every one of us? The latest data shows that in the United States more than 2.000 people get a heart transplant every year (3,500 worldwide), and long-term survival rates are now about 70 percent.
I well remember the first-ever heart transplant surgery. The world held its breath, and all eyes were on Cape Town, South Africa, on December 3, 1967, as Christiaan Barnard and a team of 30 removed a heart from Denise Darvall, who had been killed the day before while crossing the street. Her heart was connected to the major arteries and veins in the chest of Louis Washkansky, a 55-year-old grocer with incurable heart disease. He lived for 18 days before he died of pneumonia caused by immunosuppressive drugs. Many immediately said, See there. It can’t be done. The heart is a sacred thing.” A little more than a year later Philip Blaiberg got a new heart and survived 19 months. The next year Dorothy Fisher received a new heart and lived for 12.5 years. Then two years later Dirk van Zyl had a heart transplant that gave him 23 years of life. Today heart transplants are quite common and are done in many cardiac centers the world over. Thanks to new immunosuppressive drugs and new techniques, the survival rate has steadily increased.
Normally, a heart has to be stopped in order to work on it. Surgeons have to have steady and skilled hands to do the incredibly precise work required. But just last week I saw reports of computer-controlled robots guided by 3-D imaging that are able to do external heart repair on beating hearts. Cameras detect heart movements. Robots instantaneously follow that movement and are able to perform delicate microvascular surgery on the fly.
The reality is that all of us have damaged hearts, and we are all at risk of dying. The good news is that our heart surgeon has a donor heart ready for us, and His long-term survival rate is 100 percent Why not give Him your old heart right now. .
Lord, though I am simply unable to comprehend Your love that would cause You to transplant Your Own heart of love into my feeble body, I thank You and honor You as my heart transplant surgeon and life-giver. May I love others today with Your heart.