Woman visits own heart

Jennifer Sutton, 23, recently visited her own heart at an exhibition in London. Sutton received a heart transplant and her original ticker is on display as part of the Wellcome Collection's educational exhibition The Heart.

From Alistair Strachan's Fortean Times blog:

As you might imagine, she found the experience very odd and moving. "Seeing my heart for the first time is an emotional and surreal experience. It caused me so much pain and turmoil when it was inside me. Seeing it sitting here is extremely bizarre and very strange. Finally I can see this odd looking lump of muscle that has given me so much upset. It's tremendous it has become an object of fascination and will get people thinking about the disease, heart transplants and organ donation."

Link

• [Anonymous]

  Is it supposed to be that weird shade of orange? You’d think a healthy heart full of blood would be pink or red. Of course, this isn’t a healthy heart considering it’s been dislodged from a person’s chest but still. Why even bother putting a real heart on display if it looks like a chunk of rotten chicken. Why not use a chunk of rotten chicken instead? It’s probably cheaper.
  -SirBarrett

• [Anonymous]

  There’s something strangely life affirming about this

• [Anonymous]

  I’m reminded of a certain Philip K. Dick story in which a time traveller, contemplating a skull, suddenly realizes that it’s his own.

• [Jonathan Stampf]

  She’s just gazing at it. I’d grab it and toss it up in the air.
  http://www.babygorilla.com/warehouse/anatomy/boyheart/boyheart.html

• [Anonymous]

  The yellow/orange stuff is fat… all hearts are covered in it.. it is a similar colour in the body although perhaps more pale yellow in colour.

• [A New Challenger]

  “Her on heart?” What did she climb atop it or something, I imagine that would be very weird. OMG TYPO BOING BOING IS TEH FAIL

  See, Anonymous, that’s how you troll. Got to make sure your free entertainment stays in line.

  Right, more pertinently:

  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photograph of a real heart before now, save for extremely bloody-and-obscured views of open heart surgery video on TLC.

  I kept my wisdom teeth when I had ‘em out last year, and they’re fun to look at. This must really be trippy, especially since it’s part of an exhibit. It’s one thing to have your tonsils in formaldehyde at home, but your heart available for public viewing is something else.

• [Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little]

  While I know that real hearts aren’t going to be valentine red, I’m still surprised by the yellowish hue all over the organ. Is that normal? Is it a result of the preservation process? Is it maybe something to do with why it needed replacing?

• [Tim]

  Whoa man!
  Bizarre! Surreal!
  And I’m talking about some of the comments here! ;-)

  Wow! can you imagine seeing your own heart like that and how it would feel!? Apparently from her young age one could deduce that the reason for the transplant was some form of congenital disease. I’m sure she would have preferred to keep her own if she could have.
  This should make us all pause and consider how we’re treating our own hearts!

  Agent001 of http://successpatrol.com
  See my blog http://marketingsearchnews.com

• [Stacyj]

  I’m amazed at how composed she seems – dunno why but the entire idea distresses me -immensely-. Even just thinking about it triggers this weird little panic button in the part of my psyche where logic fails utterly, there’d be no placid quote about how ‘odd and surreal’ an experience that was if I were in her shoes (“Oh my god THAT’S MY HEART, YOU BASTARDS! I need that to live, put it BACK!!”)