Man lives 37 yrs with 1 atrium, purple blood

Source:Yangtze Evening Published: 2012-8-23 19:45:04

While the term "blue bloods" is normally associated with either aristocrats or vampires, one man's purple-colored blood has come with neither riches or superhuman powers, but rather a life of fragile health.

Ma Minghai, a 37-year-old man from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, was born with only one atrium in his heart.

This condition causes arterial blood to merge into the venous blood, making the blood appear purple. It also causes the afflicted to feel weak and have a purplish hue in their skin.

Ma recently underwent surgery to correct this condition.

"He couldn't run when he was a kid, and he has become increasingly weak as he has gotten older," said Ma Zhixiong, Ma Minghai's father. "When he was 20, he could neither run nor bear loads. He couldn't even get excited."

Ma Minghai said that he has always avoided conflict with others, leaving him to live in isolation for years.

"I'd tremble and become nervous when I saw others quarreling. I even fainted on some occasions," he said.

According to Chen Suocheng, the doctor who performed the surgery, in his decades of medical experience, he has treated patients with this condition twice before.

"We didn't perform a blood transfusion. Now that he has two atria, his blood will gradually become normal."

Ma Minghai smiled into the mirror after the surgery, having already noticed a healthy color in his skin.

"It feels like a dream, a dream I have been waiting for for over 30 years," he said.

Yangtze Evening



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