Q&A: Vincent Figueredo ’83

Ancient civilizations revered the human heart as the home of emotions, memory, understanding, and the soul. But with a surge of 16th century European research, the heart got a rude demotion. The king of all organs became viewed as a mere mechanical (though, admirably hard-working) pump.

In his new book The Curious History of the Heart (Columbia University Press), Vincent Figueredo, M.D., traces humankind’s fascination and obsession with this bloody, ever-beating lump of muscle across millennia and around the globe. The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, cardiologist brings readers to surprising, cardiocentric moments in science and history, art, and culture. And he raises questions about whether, despite our place in the data-driven 21st century, we don’t still hold some intuitive beliefs about our tickers that come, well, straight from the heart. (With these intuitions now finding support in early research from the new field of neurocardiology.)

Now in private practice, Dr. Figueredo is a former professor of medicine, chief of cardiology, and a National Institutes of Health-funded heart researcher. Throughout his career, he’s collected the heart’s oldest stories, while treating patients with (and teaching medical students about) the unprecedented wave of advances in heart disease prevention and treatment of the last 30 years.

Figueredo spoke with health and medicine journalist Sari Harrar about the book.

Sari Harrar: You once massaged a human heart until it started beating again. What was that like?

Vincent Figueredo: I was a medical resident at ColumbiaPresbyterian Hospital and a patient had just come into the intensive care unit after bypass surgery and started crashing. The surgeon opened their chest back up right there. And I was told to start squeezing that heart to get it going again. Honestly, it felt like I was squeezing a tennis ball. That muscle was surprisingly strong. Suddenly, it started jerking slowly and it started beating. Within a minute, it was beating fast and strong. I was just in awe. Open-heart massage is a pretty rare thing. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to hold a living heart in my hand.

SH: What led you to choose cardiology?

VF: I always wanted to be a doctor. My mother claims that I told my pediatrician when I was 5 years old that I was going to be a physician. I went to Haverford with the intention of being pre-med. I ended up majoring in chemistry, probably because Professor Claude Wintner gave me the only 2.7 grade I’ve ever had in my life. [Wintner, a professor emeritus of chemistry, died in March at age 84. See p.77 for his obituary.] I wanted to prove to him that I had the grit to succeed in chemistry. Claude eventually became a mentor to me. During medical school and my residency at Columbia I quickly became drawn to the heart. It is central to life. Heart patients can be so sick, yet they can have remarkable recoveries.

SH: Fatal heart disease rates are rising in the U.S. after decades of decline. How can we show our own hearts more love?

VF: I know it sounds simple, but for the most part, the answer is just eating right, exercising, not smoking, and reducing the stress in our lives.

SH: You open the book with Hugh Montgomery, a 17th century Irish aristocrat whose heart was visible—and touchable—through a hole in his chest. Why is he significant?

VF: Hugh Montgomery smashed his chest against a jutting rock in a riding accident at age 10. Remarkably, he survived and the wound healed over with a thin film of scar tissue. You could actually look in the hole and see the heart beating, or put your fingers in there and feel it. He exhibited this to sold-out crowds in Europe. Back in England, King Charles I asked his physician, William Harvey, to bring Montgomery to him. The king touched

Books

his heart and they all realized Montgomery couldn’t feel it. This led to Harvey’s conclusion that the heart was nothing more than an insensitive blood pump. His theory has held sway up until modern times.

SH: Is there an ancient or classical story you found during your research that’s particularly moving?

VF: A favorite is from the Indian Sanskrit epic Ramayana, from about 600 BCE. It’s about the heart’s role in love and devotion. There’s a celebration when Lord Rama returns after 14 years away from home, having killed a multi-headed demon. His general and ardent devotee, Hanuman, receives a pearl necklace from Lord Rama’s wife, Sita. He looks at every pearl and then throws it away because there are no signs of Rama in it. Rama’s followers mock him, asking if Rama is in Hanuman himself. Hanuman tears his chest open. On his heart are images of Rama and Sita. The guests realize his devotion is genuine.

SH: How is new research uncovering evidence that old views of the heart may be more accurate than we’ve thought?

VF: A new field called neurocardiology is finding that there is an