Transplant Patient Stuns Doctors When Heart Heals

Michael Crowe's near-miraculous story began with a mundane case of stomach flu. But when he went frozen on the family couch a couple of days later—staring and sweating while his mother tried to slap him out of it—the 23-year-old Omaha resident was rushed to the hospital last year and told he had a dire heart condition: inflammation of the heart muscle. Bottom line: Crowe needed a new heart before his body's other organs shut down, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

Next came a day of hope and tragedy, when a heart was flown in at the last minute, but doctors found Crowe had blood poisoning that made a transplant impossible. So they sadly left Crowe hooked up to his machines ... and found an hour later that his blood pressure was up again and his heart was already healing. Now he's home, taking medicine, following on a strict diet, and looking forward to returning to pharmacy school next year. Doctors say hearts do mend when hooked up to heart-lung machines, but Crowe's mother calls it "a medical miracle. Excellent medical care and, I think, the power of prayer." (More heart transplants stories.)