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A transplant survivor has two hearts beating in his chest at the same time.
The patient, known only as Suresh, 45, was suffering from heart failure but his high lung pressure meant he was too weak to have a traditional single transplant without the new organ failing.
Doctors therefore transplanted a smaller female heart into his chest cavity and connected it to the old one in a procedure known as heterotopic heart transplantation.
Suresh now has two hearts beating in tandem after what is thought to be the first operation of its kind in Asia.
Speaking after the operation in Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital, Coimbatore, India, doctors said the surgery was 'hard and demanding.'