Heart Fact
Memory of the Heart
by Kassia Halteman
Did you know that your heart has the ability to remember things?
Scientists have discovered that the heart is much more than a pump to keep the blood moving through your body. The heart can remember like the brain. It has other chambers of unknown characteristics. They found that the heart has some special cells like the ones in the brain that collects memory.
A donated heart may have an amazing ability to retain the memories of its donor and transfer them to the new owner! A male UMC patient who got a woman's heart, was soon bothered by his new preference for the color pink and the desire to wear perfumes. Another male patient received the heart of a man who died in a car accident. The man who died was a fan of rock music, while the man who received the new heart hated rock music and only listened to slow music. After receiving the new heart the man began to love rock music.
A woman named Jaime Sherman, age 28, was born and raised in Tucson, she never liked Mexican food. She craved Italian and was a pasta lover. But three years ago, all that changed for her, when she underwent a heart transplant at University Medical Center, after battling a heart defect since birth. "Now I love football, baseball, basketball. You name it, I follow it," said Jaime, a psychology student at Arizona State University. "And Mexican food is by far my favorite."
Then she learned 29-year-old Scott Phillips - who died of a head injury after a fight at a Phoenix bar - was a sports fan who loved Mexican food. He played on several teams at Kansas State University and followed college and pro sports. Jaime's metamorphosis from non fan to super fan occurred well before she knew anything about her donor.
My favorite story is about an 8-year-old girl who got the heart of a 10-year-old murder victim. After her heart transplant, the 8 year old was plagued by nightmares of the crime done to the 10 year old victim. The girl used the images in her dreams to help police locate and convict her donor's killer. That's pretty cool!
A number of people have noticed that after getting heart transplants that their personality changes and not only that their personality changes to reflect the donors personality. Stories like this are numerous.
I first heard about this when I was younger. Someone told me but I didn't believe it. Just recently I looked it up on the internet and found lots of stories and information about people after a heart transplant. I also learned about the hearts memory through the ATI Wisdom books in the section about hearts.