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Where once doctors actually had to puncture the heart and aorta and use wide-gauge tubes to attach a heart-lung machine, they now use thin catheters (right).
These are inserted into an artery and a vein in the leg and carefully coaxed all the way up until they reach the valves of the heart . Once in place they inflate to still the flow of blood to the organ, thus isolating it and allowing the machine to take over. |
| Photographs by Porter Gifford. Contact |
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