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The remains of dozens of child sacrifice victims have been unearthed in Peru, and many more are likely waiting to be found, archaeologists say. The skeletons show evidence that the children's hearts were removed, said Gabriel Prieto, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Florida who directs the excavations at Pampa La Cruz, the site near Huanchaco where the remains were found. All 76 skeletons had a "transversal clean cut across the sternum," Prieto said, which suggests that "they possibly opened up the rib cage and then they possibly extracted the heart."

Noted evangelical leader the Rev. Franklin Graham underwent surgery on Monday at the Mayo Clinic for a heart problem and said the procedure was a success. In a statement shared with The Christian Post, Samaritan's Purse said: Franklin Graham successfully underwent a specialized heart surgery today at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In recent months, Franklin had developed constrictive pericarditis, inflammation, and hardening of the sac around the heart that compresses the heart and prevents it from working properly. The surgery involved removing the pericardium.His doctors expect a full recovery and assured him that he should be able to return...

Mike Pence has had a pacemaker implanted during a procedure in Indiana, the former VP’s office said Thursday. “I am grateful for the swift professionalism and care of the outstanding doctors, nurses and staff at Inova Heart and Vascular Institute,” the ex-veep said in the statement.

Dr. Vladimir "Zev" Zelenko, who has gained national attention recently for his treatment of COVID-19 with hydroxychloroquine and zinc, offered an update on his health situation and thanked supporters. Recently a mass was found in his pulmonary artery attached to his pulmonic heart valve, requiring surgery to remove, he said in a video from his hospital bed. Zelenko added: "Regarding COVID, we're winning, thank G-d; some countries in Central America believe it or not are making hydroxychloroquine over-the-counter, and the truth is it's really unstoppable at this point, it's just a function of time." "Unfortunately time means lives lost, so...

Even as China has sent in a medical team to North Korea to advise the leader, a Beijing-backed satellite TV channel's vice director, who is also a niece of a Chinese foreign minister, has claimed that Kim Jong Un is dead. Vice director of HKSTV Hong Kong Satellite Television told her 15 million followers on Weibo that her Kim Jong Un death claim was backed by a "very solid source." Her post on Weibo since then has been shared widely on social media. There is also a viral image that is being shared that claims to show Kim Jong Un...

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is reportedly in “grave danger” following surgery, CNN reported on Monday evening, citing an anonymous U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation. There have been rumors of the dictator’s declining health in recent days, after he reportedly missed the country’s most important political holiday last week — the birthday celebration of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and founder of the communist tyranny. NBC’s Kathy Tur sparked further speculation after deleting a tweet citing two U.S. officials who purportedly claimed that the authoritarian is “brain dead.” “North Korean leader Kim ing Un is brain dead,...

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is recovering from emergency heart surgery the company disclosed Thursday evening. Co-Presidents and Chief Operating Officers Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith released a statement to employees and shareholders: "We want to let you know that Jamie experienced an acute aortic dissection this morning. He underwent successful emergency heart surgery to repair the dissection. The good news is that it was caught early and the surgery was successful. He is awake, alert and recovering well. Our Lead Director, Lee Raymond, said today, “Our Board has been fully briefed on these developments and has asked Daniel and Gordon...

He's having serious heart surgery tomorrow, good docs, and he's otherwise in good shape, but any prayers for him and the med teams are appreciated.

People with severe but stable heart disease from clogged arteries may have less chest pain if they get a procedure to improve blood flow rather than just giving medicines a chance to help, but it won’t cut their risk of having a heart attack or dying over the following few years, a big federally funded study found. The results challenge medical dogma and call into question some of the most common practices in heart care. They are the strongest evidence yet that tens of thousands of costly stent procedures and bypass operations each year are unnecessary or premature for people...

Analysis of the PARTNER 2A trial and the SAPIEN-3 Intermediate Risk registry found transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to be highly cost-effective compared with surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in intermediate surgical risk patients with aortic stenosis. Findings were reported today at the 29th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium. Sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), TCT is the world's premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine. Researchers led by Dr. David J. Cohen (Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, MO) used data from the PARTNER 2A randomized trial and the SAPIEN-3 Intermediate Risk registry...

Dr. Denton Cooley, a Houston native and a pioneer of heart transplants, died Friday. He was 96. Born in 1920, Cooley graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas Austin and earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1944. Cooley performed the first transplant of a human heart in the United States in 1968. The following year, he became the first surgeon to implant an artificial heart in a human.

Biomaterial experts at Germany’s Bayreuth and Würzburg universities claimed a breakthrough in cultivating living cells while holding them in place with liquified spider silk. The research method mixed spider silk with connective fibroblast cells from mice to generate a so-called “bio ink” or gel. Fibroblasts typically begin wound repairs. When extruded from a 3-D printer, the silk molecules quickly wrapped those cells, giving them a porous matrix in which to flourish, the team said. …

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to hospital on Wednesday where she underwent heart surgery to address a blockage in her right coronary artery. “The coronary blockage was discovered after Justice Ginsburg experienced discomfort during routine exercise last night and was taken to the hospital,” read a statement on her condition. “She is resting comfortably and is expected to be discharged in the next 48 hours.”Now, health scares like these are nothing to joke about, and all our readers surely wish “The Notorious R.B.G.” well. That having been said, it would be dishonest to not note the...

Louisville Kentucky cardiothoracic surgeon Erle Austin has performed successful heart repair surgery on a 14 month old infant named Roland Lian Cung Bawi — heart surgery on such a young patient is not unheard of, of course, what's new is that Austin was able to map out his surgical approach using a nearly exact model of the patients heart—it had been printed on a 3D printer. Young Roland had been born with four congenital heart defects—doctors had known since before he was born that his heart had problems. Fixing them all would prove to be a challenge. When it came...

Former Vice President Walter Mondale underwent heart surgery Wednesday, his family announced. Mondale, 86, underwent an unspecified procedure at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, his family said in a brief statement that called the surgery “successful.” …

Surgeons in Los Angeles have for the first time performed a life-saving procedure on a tiny fetus inside its mother’s womb after practicing on a grape. Using a hair-fine wire, a miniature needle, a tiny balloon and a catheter, they successfully carried out the operation on the unborn child’s heart—which is about the size of a walnut. It was a medical first for the surgical team at CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, and according to the LA Times, it appears to have been a success. … Practicing for such a critical and exacting procedure, remarkably, involved using...

The office of George W. Bush revealed the former president had heart surgery Tuesday morning. According to a press release, doctors discovered a blockage in an artery in Bush's heart during the former president's annual physical examination at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. Bush agreed to have a stent placed to open the blockage and successfully completed the surgery Tuesday morning without complication at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Three out of 10 specialist units will stop performing heart surgery on children following an NHS review which decided resources were spread too thinly. The Royal Brompton in Chelsea, west London, Leeds General Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital in Leicester will not stop providing surgery immediately as plans to implement the new streamlined service are still being developed. Once they stop providing surgery, probably after 2013, the units will still see patients for diagnosis, monitoring and non-surgical treatment. The consultation process by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) of England

OGDEN -- Ogden Regional Medical Center is the first Top of Utah hospital to perform cardiothoracic surgery with a sophisticated robot called da Vinci. The robotic surgery, an alternative to traditional open heart surgery, is used for mitral valve repair, coronary artery bypass grafting and atrial septal defect, among other procedures. The minimally invasive surgery uses smaller incisions without having to crack the chest open and cut through bone. The results include shorter hospital stays, faster recovery, significantly less pain and fewer complications, said Dr. Joseph Graham, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Ogden Regional Medical Center and the first in Utah...